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Deimos (deity)

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Deimos
God of terror
Genealogy
ParentsAres and Aphrodite
SiblingsPhobos, Harmonia

In Greek mythology, Deimos /ˈdmɒs/ (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, lit.'fear'[1] pronounced [dêːmos]) is the personification of fear.[2] He is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the brother of Phobos. Deimos served to represent the feelings of dread and terror that befell those before a battle, while Phobos personified feelings of fear and panic in the midst of battle.

Genealogy

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In Hesiod's Theogony, Deimos is the son of Ares and Cytherea (Aphrodite), and the sibling of Phobos and Harmonia.[3] According to the Greek antiquarian Semus of Delos, Deimos is the father of the monster Scylla.[4]

Mythology

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Deimos mainly appears in an assistant role to his father, who causes disorder in armies.[citation needed] In the Iliad, he accompanied his father, Ares, into battle with the Goddess of Discord, Eris, and his brother Phobos (fear).[5] In the Shield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once Herakles injures him.[6] The poet Antimachus, in a misrepresentation of Homer's account, portrays Deimos and Phobos as the horses of Ares.[7] In Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frighten Typhon.[8] Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares' charioteers to battle Dionysus during his war against the Indians.[9]

Namesake

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In 1877, the American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two satellites of the planet Mars. Hall named the two moons Phobos and Deimos. Deimos is the smaller of the two satellites.[10]

Notes

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  1. ^ Beekes, s.v. δεῖμα, pp. 309–10.
  2. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos.
  3. ^ Gantz, p. 80; Hesiod, Theogony, 933.
  4. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos; FGrHist 396 F22.
  5. ^ Homer, Iliad, 4.436
  6. ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 460
  7. ^ Matthews, p. 150.
  8. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2.414
  9. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 29.364
  10. ^ Hall, A (1878). "Names of the Satellites of Mars". Astronomische Nachrichten. 92 (3): 47–48. Bibcode:1878AN.....92...47H. doi:10.1002/asna.18780920304.

References

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