Painting of the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez “God of War Mars”. The size of the picture is 179 x 95 cm, canvas, oil. This picture of the artist Velazquez was part of a series of paintings designed to decorate the royal hunting castle of Torre de la Parada, located near Madrid.
Mars in ancient Italian mythology was a deity of the wild nature, and was also considered the father of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, so he was revered as the guardian of the city. The Mars spear was in the dwelling of the ancient kings – the Regions, there were also twelve shields, one of which, according to legend, fell from the sky, and the other shields were an exact replica made by the order of King Numa Pompilia, so that the hypothetical attacker could not recognize and damage the authentic.
The spear and shield of Mars was shaken by the commander, going to war, appealing to the deity. In the later period of myth-making, the functions of Mars as the god-keeper of the community of Rome, have receded into the background. In ancient Roman poetry, which actively developed Greek stories about Ares, Hephaestus and Aphrodite, Mars began to be considered identical with the Greek god of war Ares.
