Myth Library · Divine Conflict

Ares Imprisoned by the Aloadae

2 source witnesses · 2 source-scoped variants · reviewed 2026-08-30

Otus and Ephialtes, sons of Poseidon and Iphimedeia in Pseudo-Apollodorus, imprison Ares in a bronze jar until Hermes releases him. Their wider revolt ends through Artemis ruse.

Canonical narrative

The Iliad remembers Ares not at the head of an army but sealed in bronze. Otus and Ephialtes force the god into a jar and keep him there through thirteen turning months. The story does not soften what such a captivity means. Ares is nearly spent before Eriboea reveals the secret and Hermes slips in to carry him free.

Pseudo-Apollodorus first names Otus and Ephialtes as sons of Poseidon and Iphimedeia, then sets the imprisonment inside the Aloadae's larger revolt. The brothers grow at a monstrous pace, threaten heaven, and make claims upon Hera and Artemis. Ares' captivity becomes one proof that their arrogance has real power before it destroys them.

The two witnesses share the bronze jar and Hermes' rescue, but their storytelling aims differ. The Iliad uses the old tale as a sudden measure of divine suffering. The mythographer builds a continuous career of the giants. Both preserve an Ares whose force can be contained, weakened, and dependent on another god's cunning.

Artemis ends the wider revolt without meeting the brothers' strength head-on. Otus has claimed her as a bride, Ephialtes has claimed Hera, and both have stacked mountains against heaven. On Naxos, Artemis takes the form of a deer and runs between them. Each brother throws at the moving quarry. Each spear finds the other brother. The ruse turns their shared appetite for conquest into the means of their death.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

Ares bound in bronze

The Aloadae confine the war god in a bronze vessel for thirteen months, reversing the expected power between captors and captive.

Episode 2

Hermes rescues Ares

Warned of the imprisonment, Hermes releases Ares when prolonged confinement has nearly exhausted him.

Episode 3

Artemis turns the brothers’ spears

Artemis becomes a deer and leaps between Otus and Ephialtes so that their thrown spears strike each other.

Participants and roles

Ares

captive god shut in the bronze jar and rescued after thirteen months

The Iliad and Pseudo-Apollodorus agree on captivity and rescue; the epic gives the thirteen-month duration and his near exhaustion.

Otus

one of the Aloadae who bind and imprison Ares

His role belongs to the paired Aloadae tradition and does not establish an independent cult relationship with Ares.

Ephialtes

one of the Aloadae who bind and imprison Ares

He acts with Otus in both witnesses; neither account makes the brothers permanent attendants of Ares.

Hermes

rescuer who secretly releases the exhausted Ares

The rescue is explicit in the Iliad and retained in the later mythographic telling.

Eriboea

figure who informs Hermes of Ares' imprisonment in the Iliad

The Iliad names her as the informant who makes Hermes' intervention possible; the brief allusion gives no larger biography here.

Artemis

goddess who becomes a deer and causes the Aloadae to kill one another

Her Naxian ruse resolves the brothers’ wider revolt after the same witness recounts Ares’ imprisonment.

Poseidon

father of Otus and Ephialtes through Iphimedeia in the later mythographic witness

Pseudo-Apollodorus names the parentage before the brothers growth, revolt, and imprisonment of Ares.

Iphimedeia

mother of Otus and Ephialtes by Poseidon in the later mythographic witness

The parentage belongs to Pseudo-Apollodorus and is not supplied by the Iliad’s compact captivity allusion.

Source-scoped variants

The Iliad's thirteen-month captivity

Otus and Ephialtes hold Ares in a bronze jar for thirteen months until Eriboea alerts Hermes, who steals him out nearly spent.

What differs: The Iliad tells the captivity as a compact warning about divine suffering and rescue without narrating the giants' entire revolt.

Greek Archaic · Ancient Greece

Pseudo-Apollodorus' Aloadae revolt

The imprisonment of Ares appears inside a larger revolt that ends when Artemis becomes a deer and causes Otus and Ephialtes to strike one another.

What differs: The later mythographer joins the bronze jar, the assault on heaven, claims upon Hera and Artemis, Hermes’ rescue of Ares, and Artemis’ Naxian ruse into one larger sequence.

Greek Roman Imperial · Ancient Greece

Source witnesses

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Iliad

Homer; Monro and Allen Greek edition with edition-specific translations · 1920

Book 5 · Line 385-391

Archaic epic allusion emphasizing duration, confinement, Eriboea's warning, and Hermes' rescue.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Library

Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921

Entry Library · Section 1.7.4

Later mythographic sequence places the imprisonment within the Aloadae's wider assault upon the gods.

Open reviewed source