Mars, a contraction of Afavers or Marors, in the Oscan or Sabine language Mamers, Greek A z'ers, is the name of the Boman and Greek god of war, or, better, of battles.
(1) With the Eomans this divinity is surnamed Gra- divus {=ffrandis dims, the great god), also Silramts, and appears to have been originally an agricultural de- ity— propitiator}^ offerings were presented to him as the guardian of fields and flocks ; but as the fierce shepherds who founded the city of Rome were even more addicted to martial tlian to pastoral pursuits, one can easily mi- derstand ho\v Mars Silvarais should have, in the course of time, become the " God of War." Mars, who was a perfect representation of the stern, relentless, and even cruel valor of the old Romans, was held in the highest honor. He ranked next to Jupiter; like liim he bore the venerable epithet of Father i^lnrs-jiiter') • he was one of the three tutelary divinities of the city, to each of whom Numa appointed a flamen ; nay, he was said to be the father of Romulus himself (by Rhea Silvia, the priestess of Vesta), and was thus believed to be the real progenitor of the Roman peojile. He liad a sanc- tuary on the Quirinal; and the hill received its name from his surname, Quirinus, the most probable meaning of which is the spear-armed. It was under this desig- nation that he was invoked as the protector of the Qui- rites (citizens) — in other words, of the state. The
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principal animals sacred to him were the wolf and the horse. He liad many temples at Home, the most cele- brated of which was that outside the Poiia Capena, on the Appian Koad. The Campus Maiiiiis, where the Komans practiced athletic and military exercises, was named after him ; so was the month of March {Mm-tius), the first month of the Komau year. The Ludi Martia- les (games lield in his honor) were celebrated every year in the circus on the 1st of August.
(2) Akes, the Greek god of war, was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the favorite of Aphrodite, who bore liira several children. He is represented in Greek poetry as a most sanguinary divinity, delighting in war for its own sake, and in the destruction of men. Before him into battle goes his sister Eris (Strife) ; along with him are his sons and companions, Dnmos (Horror), and Plto- bos (Fear). He does not always adhere to the same side, like the great ^-1 thena, but inspires now the one, now the other. He is not always victorious. Diomede wounded him, and in his fall, says Homer, "he roared like nine or ten thousand warriors together." Such a representation would have been deemed blasphemous by the ancient Koman mind, imbued as it was with a sol- emn, Hebrew-like reverence for its gods. The worship of
Ares was never very prevalent in Greece ; it is believed to have been imported from Tlirace. There and in Scythia were its great seats, and there Ares was believed to have his chief home. He had, however, temples or shrines at A t h c n s, S p a r t a, Olympia, and other places. On statues and reliefs he is represented as a person of great mus- cular pov,-er, and either naked or clothed with the chla- mys. — Chambers, Ci/clop. s. v.; Smith. Diet. Gr. and Rom. Bior/. and Mythol. vol. ii, s. v. ; Vollmcr, Mythol. Worterhuch, s. v.
Mars, St., a French hermit, was born at Bais, near La Guerche, about 510. He was priest at Vitre, and acquired a great reputation for piety. When old, he constructed a hermitage for himself in some waste land in the neighborhood of the vUlage of Mars, and there ended his days. His tomb became celebrated for the numerous miracles which it was claimed were performed there. The faithful came thither on pilgrimages from all parts of Brittany. In 1427 the inhabitants of Bais, fearing an incursion of the English, carried the body of their saint to Saint-Madelaine de Vitre. The dan- ger passed, the Baisiens demanded the body of their saint, but the canons of Vitre refused to restore it. F'rom law-suits they proceeded to blows, and many times dur- ing the processions the Baisiens attempted to recover their precious relic ; but the inhabitants of Vitre always proved the stronger, and retained the body of Saint iSIaVs until 1750, when a decree of the Parliament of Rennes reconciled the parties by dividing the body of the saint. Vitre kept the head, the right^high, aiid two sides; Bais had the remainder. The festival of Saint Mars oc- curs on the 14th of January and 21st of June. At these periotls the shrine is carried solemnly through the sur- rounding countrj'. — Dom Lobineau, JHstoire de Bre- tagne; Godescard, T'le des plus ceiebres Sai/iis,yo\.i; A. Hugo, La France jnttoresque ; Hoefer, Noiiv. Biog. Gme- rale, vol. xxxiii, s. v.
Marsay, Charles Hkctor de St. Georges, iAnr- qnis de, a French mystic, was born in 1688 at Paris, whither his parents, pious members of the Reformed Church, had fled to avoid the persecution raging against the Protestants in the jirovinces. While yet a youth the whole family removed to Germanv, and there Charles
took part in the Spanish War of Succession in the Neth- erlands. He now became a convert to the views of Bourignon (q. v.), and with his friend Cordier retired, in 1711, to Schwarzenau,in the provuice of Wittgenstein. Cordier, however, leaving him, he married, in 1712, Clara Ehzabeth of Callerberg, whose views were similar to his own. During the years 1713-16 he made several jour- neys to Switzerland, where he became acquainted with the works of Madame Guyon (q. v.). He then returned to Schwarzenau, learned the watch-making trade, be- came president of the Philadelphian Society, and re- sided there until 1724. In 1746 he became a Pietist, and died in the neighborhood of Auibleben in 1753, a truly evangelical Christian, a disciple of Christ, cling- ing faithfidly to the truth as it is in Jesus. Jlarsay had great influence in propagating throughout Germany the mystic views of Bourignon and Guyon. He wrote F7-ei- miithige it. christUche Discurse (1734) : — Zeugniss eines Kimles V. d. Richtiglceit d. Wege d. Geistes (1735, 2 parts) : — Selbstbiographie, in the 2d vol. of Valenti, System d, hoheren Jhilkunde (Elberf. 1826). — Gobel, Gesch, der tcahren Inspirations-gemeinden (in Niedner's Zeitschr.J. hist, Theol. 1855, iii, § 21, 4) ; the same, Gesch. d. christl. Lebens, etc. (Cobl. 1852), ii, bk. ix; also the excellent ar- ticle in Herzog, Real-Encyklop. ix, 116 sq.