Enyalius

Enyalius

The warlike, frequently occurs in the Iliad (never in the Odyssey) either as an epithet of Ares, or as a proper name instead of Ares. (xvii. 211, ii. 651, vii. 166, viii. 264, xiii. 519, xvii. 259, xviii. 309, xx. 69)

At a later time, however, Enyalius and Ares were distinguished as two different gods of war, and Enyalius was looked upon as a son of Ares and Enyo, or of Cronos and Rhea. (Aristoph. Pax, 457; Dionys. A. R. iii. 48; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 944.)

The name is evidently derived from Enyo, though one tradition derived it from a Thracian Enyalius, who received into his house those only who conquered him in single combat, and for the same reason refused to receive Ares, but the latter slew him. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 673.) The youths of Sparta sacrificed young dogs to Ares under the name of Enyalius (Paus. iii. 14. § 9), and near the temple of Hipposthenes, at Sparta, there stood the ancient fettered statue of Enyalius. (Paus. iii. 15, § 5) Dionysus, too, is said to have been surnamed Enyalius. (Macrob. Sat. i. 19.)

From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

From The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius.

(ll. 320-366) "Aeetes, that ship forthwith stormy blasts tore asunder, and ourselves, crouching on the beams, a wave drove on to the beach of the isle of Enyalius.

(ll. 555-563) He spake, and the warriors approved, remembering the injunctions of Phineus; but all alone leapt up Apharcian Idas and shouted loudly in terrible wrath: "Shame on us, have we come here fellow voyagers with women, calling on Cypris for help and not on the mighty strength of Enyalius? And do ye look to doves and hawks to save yourselves from contests? Away with you, take thought not for deeds of war, but by supplication to beguile weakling girls."

By now the earthborn men were springing up over all the field; and the plot of Ares, the death-dealer, bristled with sturdy shields and double-pointed spears and shining helmets; and the gleam reached Olympus from beneath, flashing through the air. And as when abundant snow has fallen on the earth and the storm blasts have dispersed the wintry clouds under the murky night, and all the hosts of the stars appear shining through the gloom; so did those warriors shine springing up above the earth. But Jason bethought him of the counsels of Medea full of craft, and seized from the plain a huge round boulder, a terrible quoit of Ares Enyalius; four stalwart youths could not have raised it from the ground even a little. Taking it in his hands he threw it with a rush far away into their midst; and himself crouched unseen behind his shield, with full confidence. And the Colchians gave a loud cry, like the roar of the sea when it beats upon sharp crags; and speechless amazement seized Aeetes at the rush of the sturdy quoit. And the Earthborn, like fleet-footed hounds, leaped upon one another and slew with loud yells; and on earth their mother they fell beneath their own spears, likes pines or oaks, which storms of wind beat down. And even as a fiery star leaps from heaven, trailing a furrow of light, a portent to men, whoever see it darting with a gleam through the dusky sky; in such wise did Aeson's son rush upon the earthborn men, and he drew from the sheath his bare sword, and smote here and there, mowing them down, many on the belly and side, half risen to the air--and some that had risen as far as the shoulders--and some just standing upright, and others even now rushing to battle. And as when a fight is stirred up concerning boundaries, and a husbandman, in fear lest they should ravage his fields, seizes in his hand a curved sickle, newly sharpened, and hastily cuts the unripe crop, and waits not for it to be parched in due season by the beams of the sun; so at that time did Jason cut down the crop of the Earthborn; and the furrows were filled with blood, as the channels of a spring with water.