Deimos

Deimos was the Greek personification of terror or dread, the son of Ares and Aphrodite and the brother of Phobos (“Fear”). The name means “dread”. In Homer he is one of the figures who attend Ares on the battlefield, and in Hesiod he is born as one of the children of the war god.

Parents and Family

Hesiod says that Cytherea (Aphrodite) bore to Ares, the shield-piercer, Phobos and Deimos, “terrible gods, who drive in confusion the close ranks of men in chilling war, with Ares, sacker of cities”, and Harmonia, whom brave Cadmus made his wife (Hesiod, Theogony 933–937). Deimos is therefore the brother of Phobos and of Harmonia. Hesiod names no consort or children for him.

Deimos in the Iliad

Deimos is not the hero of any myth, but he is not absent from the stories either: he appears as part of the war god’s company in Homer’s Iliad. When the Trojan and Greek armies close for battle, Ares urges on the Trojans and Athena the Greeks, and with them Terror (Deimos), Fear (Phobos) and Strife (Eris), the sister and comrade of Ares, rouse the armies (Iliad 4.439–441). When Ares learns that his son Ascalaphus has been killed, he orders Deimos and Phobos to yoke his horses while he puts on his armour (Iliad 15.119–120). Homer also places Terror and Fear around the Gorgon’s head on the shield of Agamemnon (Iliad 11.36–37).

In the Iliad Phobos is the one named as the son of Ares who follows him into war: he is “dear”, strong and unafraid, and he makes even a bold warrior turn and run (Iliad 13.298–300).

Deimos and Phobos in Hesiod’s Shield

In the Shield of Heracles, attributed to Hesiod, the scene engraved on the shield shows Ares in his chariot, spear in hand, urging on the foot soldiers, and beside him stand Deimos and Phobos, eager to plunge into the fighting of men (Hesiod, Shield 191–196). Later in the poem, when Heracles has wounded Ares, Phobos and Deimos drive the war god’s chariot and horses close and lift him into it (Shield 463–465).

Deimos and Phobos Compared

The two brothers are nearly always named together, and the poets use them as a pair for the panic that spreads through an army in war. The Greek words are close in meaning, “dread” and “fear”, and the sources do not draw a sharp line between them. Of the two, Phobos is the better known and the one who is occasionally given a more individual role. Plutarch writes that the Spartans had shrines of Fear, and of Death and Laughter as well, and that they honoured Fear not as a harmful power to be turned away, but because they thought the state was held together above all by fear (Plutarch, Cleomenes 9.1). Plutarch speaks there only of Phobos; no ancient source describes a cult of Deimos on his own.

Deimos Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 933–937 and Shield of Heracles 191–196, 463–465; Homer, Iliad 4.439–441, 11.36–37, 13.298–300, 15.119–120; Plutarch, Cleomenes 9.1.

See Also: Ares, Aphrodite, Phobos, Harmonia, Eris, Athena