The Borghese Ares (Mars), Roman Imperial Era, 238.8 cm, Musee du Louvre, Paris, France

The Borghese Ares is a Roman marble statue of the Imperial Era of the first or second century AD. Standing at 238.8 cn (7 feet) tall, it is identifiable as the Roman god Ares by the helmet and the ankle ring given him by his lover Aphrodite. This statue possibly preserves some features of an original work in bronze, now lost, of the fifth century BC. Formerly part of the Borghese collection, this Ares statue was purchased from the collection in 1807 by Emperor Napoleon; it currently is housed at the Musee du Louvre in Paris.

The discovery of artifacts from the ancient Greek cult of Ares, particularly sculptural representations of Ares, is a rare occurrence. Scholars had prviously thought the Borghese Ares might be derived from a statue created by Alcamenes, an Athenian sculptor. This was based on the writings of the  second-century Greek historian Pausanias who stated that Alcamenes had sculpted a statue of Ares later erected on the Athenian Agora, the central public assembly location in the city.

However, as the temple of Ares which Pausanias referenced had only been moved from the Athens suburb of Acharnes and re-sited in the Agora during the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD), this a chronological impossibility. Due to this, it is highly unlikely that the Borghese Ares is a copy of Aleamenes’s work but, more likely, a Roman creation copying the style of Neo-Classicism.