Deimos

The personification of dread and terror, son of Ares and Aphrodite, twin brother of Phobos, who accompanies their father into battle.

Accounts of this vary across texts and traditions. This entry primarily follows Greek mythology (Hesiod and Homer), with other tellings (Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), Ovid's Metamorphoses (Roman retelling), Regional and later Greek and Roman tradition) noted where relevant.

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Relationships

Parents

Ares · Aphrodite

Siblings

Phobos · Priapus · Harmonia

Introduction

Deimos, "dread" or "terror", is the personification of the paralysing dread that accompanies fear in battle, a son of Ares and Aphrodite, twin brother of Phobos, with whom he escorts their father Ares onto the battlefield.

Family

Father: Ares
Mother: Aphrodite
Siblings: Harmonia, Phobos, Priapus

Role

Like his brother Phobos, Deimos is a personification rather than a figure with independent adventures, embodying the terror of warfare itself; the two brothers appear together consistently in the sources that mention them, generally yoking Ares's chariot or accompanying him as he enters or leaves a battle.

Legacy

Deimos, together with Phobos, gives his name to the second of the two small moons of Mars, discovered in 1877 and named for the god of war's attendant spirits, a naming convention that reflects the long afterlife of these ancient personifications in modern scientific nomenclature.

Sources

Iliad (primary text) — https://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
Theogony (primary text) — https://classics.mit.edu/Hesiod/theogony.html

This entry is independently written for myVamsam using the sources listed above. Where traditions differ, this entry identifies the relevant tradition rather than presenting one account as universally established fact.