| Phobos | |
|---|---|
Personification of fear | |
 Possibly Phobos and Ares in Ares's chariot (510-530 BCE). | |
| Abodes | Mount Olympus |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Ares andAphrodite |
| Siblings | Erotes,Deimos,Phlegyas,Harmonia,Enyalios,Thrax,Oenomaus, andAmazons |
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Phobos (Ancient Greek:Φόβος,lit. 'flight, fright',[1]pronounced[pʰóbos],Latin:Phobus) is thegod andpersonification offear andpanic inGreek mythology. Phobos was the son ofAres andAphrodite, and the brother ofDeimos. He does not have a major role in mythology outside of being his father's attendant.[2]
In Classical Greek mythology, Phobos exists as both the god of and personification of the fear brought by war.[3]
InHesiod'sTheogony, Phobos is the son ofAres andAphrodite, and the sibling ofDeimos andHarmonia.[4] He mainly appears in an assistant role to his father and causes disorder in battle.[citation needed] In theIliad, he accompanied his father into battle along with the goddessEris (discord) and his brotherDeimos (Dread). In Hesiod'sShield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once he is injured byHerakles.[5] InNonnus'sDionysiaca,Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frightenTyphon.[6] Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares's charioteers to battle the godDionysus during his war against theIndians.[7]
In theSeven Against Thebes byAeschylus, the seven warriors slaughter a bull over a black shield and then "...touching the bull's gore with their hands they swore an oath by Ares, byEnyo, and by Rout [Phobos]".[8] According toStesichorus, Ares's son, Kyknos, "...beheaded strangers who came along in order to build a temple to Phobos (fear) from the skulls."[9]
Hesiod depicts Phobos on the shield of Heracles as "…staring backwards with eyes that glowed with fire. His mouth was full of teeth in a white row, fearful and daunting…"[10]
Phobos often is depicted as having a lion's or lion-like head. This may be seen inDescription of Greece byPausanias, "On the shield of Agamemnon is Phobos (Fear), who[se] head is a lion's…".[11]
Plutarch makes reference to a shrine to Phobos atSparta, in addition to shrines dedicated to Death (Thanatos) and Laughter (Gelos), and he claimed that the Spartans honoured fear as a positive force that held the state together.[12]Pausanias, writing duringImperial Rome, noted that the temple dedicated to Phobos was located outside of the city.[12]
There are many places within theIliad, whereHomer mentions the presence of Phobos and Deimos. Some references are:
Homer,Iliad 11. 36 ff:"[The shield of Agamemnon:] And he took up the man-enclosing elaborate stark shield, a thing of splendour. There were ten circles of bronze upon it, and set about it were twenty knobs of tin, pale-shining, and in the very centre another knob of dark cobalt. And circled in the midst of all was the blank-eyed face of the Gorgo (Gorgon) with her stare of horror, and Deimos (Dread) was inscribed upon it, and Phobos (Fear).
Homer,Iliad 15. 119 ff:"So he [Ares] spoke, and ordered Deimos (Dread) and Phobos (Fear) to harness his horses, and himself got into his shining armour."
According toPlutarch,Alexander the Great offered sacrifices to Phobos on the eve of theBattle of Gaugamela (in all probability asking for Darius to be filled with fear). This was believed byMary Renault to be part of Alexander's psychological warfare campaign againstDarius III. Darius fled from the field of Gaugamela, making Alexander's praying to Phobos seem successful as a tactic.
Phobos was depicted on the chest of Cypselus on the shield ofAgamemnon.[13]
In 1877, the AmericanastronomerAsaph Hall discovered the two satellites of the planetMars. Hall named the two moonsPhobos andDeimos. Phobos is the larger of the two satellites.[14]
The word "phobia" derives fromphobos, (Φόβος), meaning irrationalfear.
