Ares was more popular in northern Greek areas like Thrace, but even here temple sites are pretty rare - which also means that details about the worship rituals are scanty. At Sparta it is thought that human sacrifices were sometimes made to Ares, with victims chosen from enemy prisoners of war. Temples in Crete seem to have had sacrifices made to both Ares and Aphrodite.
There is also a site dedicated to him in Athens, Ares Hill at the base of the Acropolis (more commonly known as Mars Hill). Pausanias describes Ares Hill thus:
[At Athens] is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two images of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alkamenes, and one of Athena made by a Parian of the name of Lokros. There is also an image of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand images of Herakles, Theseus, Apollon binding his hair with a fillet, and statues of Kalades, who it is said framed laws for the Athenians, and of Pindaros, the statue being one of the rewards the Athenians gave him for praising them in an ode.
~
1.
Men live such lies.
They march and rave,
Warring backward, spewing hate.
(It’d have been easier to witness
But for the slaughter of humankind.)
Do we not stand for anything?
Have we such hate?
A rage of spangle-toothed graves;
(Our humanity’s winnings
In pain’s pragmatic deliverance.)
Isn’t it time for us to be heard.
Have we not the will to be free;
For now we are slaves to apathy.
(March forward with lips wet of hope
And legs heartened by liberty.)
2.
Is there logic to war?
Ask the solemn-jawed sky,
May I put a hand on you?
Ask a snipers swift bullet,
Will you warn me before you do?
You are clear to engage the building.
We have personnel on the ground.
Ask a little boy,
Can war have both your legs today?
Ask a little girl,
May war slice your tiny arms away?
Ask a grieving mother,
Which of your children should we take?
People are exiting the mosque.
Do not engage.
Ask a proud father,
Can this bomb murder your sorrow?
Ask a prayer set free
If war might end its journey.
Ask an angry brother,
Will you miss your sister tomorrow?
Clear to level it and engage personnel.
Roger that.
Ask a plummeting bomb
If war is reasonable on the way down...
3.
I believe in the truth
I believe in goodness
I believe in beauty
I believe in happiness
I believe it to be
In all people
Dark hands
Seek the pasty white face of our hope
Cultivating fear and loss and greed
These hands are impudent, coarse
Having in them death’s venom
They wait for nothing
A garrote upon day’s shadowy war
I am tired of the child’s howl
I am tired of the mother’s tear
Tired of the father’s motionless yowl
I’m sickened by these horrid truths
Tired of the mistreated seas
Tired of the seething wave
Of trembling earth and air
I’m tired of our white treachery
