Hymn to Mars (Mavors, or Marmor)

           Oh! Help us, ye Household Gods! 
                                  Oh! Help us, ye Household Gods! 
                                        Oh! Help us, ye Household Gods! 


And let not bane and bale, O  Marmor, assail more folk!
     And let not bane and bale, O  Marmor, assail more folk!
     And let not bane and bale, O  Marmor, assail more folk!

Be full satisfied, fierce Mars, Leap the threshold! Halt! Beat the ground!
    Be full satisfied, fierce Mars, Leap the threshold! Halt! Beat the ground!
    Be full satisfied, fierce Mars, Leap the threshold! Halt! Beat the ground!

By turns address all the Half-Gods.
    By turns address all the Half-Gods.
    By turns address all the Half-Gods.

Oh! Help us, Marmor!
    Oh! Help us, Marmor!
     Oh! Help us, Marmor!

Bound, Bound, and  Bound  again!
Bound, Bound, and  Bound  again!

This is one of the oldest surviving Roman prayers; note the agrarian references.
(Translated by Frances Bernstein. (from C IL VI 2104,  Loeb Classical Library)  
Source: Classical Living: Reconnecting with the  Rituals of Ancient Rome.  
(San Francisco: Harper, 2000.)

The Roman God Mars personified passion and forcefulness and masculine energy and sexuality. According to Proclus (Repub. p. 388), Mars' essential role is to contribute energy, to constantly excite the contrarieties of the universe, and to perpetually discern the sound from the unsound,  and that the world may be complete. But he requires the assistance of Venus, that he may insert order and harmony into things contrary and discordant. Current evolutionary biology notes the same dynamic!

Mars is most commonly identified today as the God of war (Mars Gradivus); but the Roman Mars was more complex than the Greek Ares. He was also MarsPater, Father Mars, and the protector of the Roman People, Quirinus.

As the early Roman Marmor, he was the personification of the shield.  Even earlier,  Mars Sylvanus (Mavors) was a fertility God, the personification of the spear-like shoots of grain which emerge from the ground after planting. Farmers prayed to Mars, 

"to prevent, ward off and avert diseases, visible and invisible, barrenness and waste, accident and bad water; that You permit the crop and fruit of the earth, the vines and shrubs to wax great and prosper, that you would preserve the shepherds and their flocks in safety and give prosperity and health to me and my household." 

(Cato, De Agricultura, l. 142, transl. Frances Bernstein.)

Identification with the wolf ran deep; the founding twins of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were saved by a she-wolf who suckled them. The sacred animal of Mars is the wolf, cunning and strong, but an animal whose real power comes from cooperation with its own kind.  Warfare in early Rome evolved from cattle-raids and Roman troops were accompanied by wolf-skin clad priests. 


Other Names for Mars: 
"Mamers", "Maris", "Marmor", "Marmar", "Mavor", "Mars Ultor", "Marspiter", "Marpiter." (The Greek Ares was identified with Mars, but seemed to have no agricultural functions. Perhaps this reflects an early split in Hellenic culture between the military and agricultural workers.) 

A prayer by Christa Landon, after the

     Homeric Hymn to Ares
                     

Most powerful Ares, 
golden-helmed,  shield-bearer, 
harnessed in bronze, 
mighty with the spear,
doughty in heart,  unwearying,
giver of dauntless youth,
father of Victory, 
hear me.

Most powerful Ares,
leader of the righteous,
stern governor of the rebellious, 
Chariot-rider, strong of arm, 
who guides your blazing steeds above the third firmament of heaven, 
hear me.
Restrain as your fiery steeds 
the keen fury of my heart 
which provokes me to 
plunge down the path of strife. 

Most powerful Ares,
helper of men,
who whirls your fiery sphere among the planets in their sevenfold courses through the aether, 
hear me.

Shine forth upon me a kindly ray. 
Give me strength to banish bitter cowardice from my heart and overcome the deceitful impulses of my mind. 

Most powerful Ares,
ally of Themis the lawgiver,  
defender of Olympos, 
sceptered King, 
Savior of cities, hear me

The Salii were a dancing brotherhood of priests which danced and banqueted through the month of March, carrying on agrarian rites which were ancient in early antiquity. The Roman Salii  resembled in many ways the Greek Kouretes (Curetes).  The Salii/Kouretes were a dancing divine youths, probably dating to Bronze Age religion. Their noisy dance was said by the Cretans to have hidden the cries of the infant Zeus from his murderous father, Ouranus.

Orphic Hymn To The Curetes
Thomas Taylor, transl.
The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE


Brass-beating Salians, ministers of Mars,
Who guard his arms the instruments of wars
Whose blessed frames, heav'n, earth, and sea compose,
And from whose breath all animals arose:
Who dwell in Samothracia's sacred ground, 
Defending mortals thro' the sea profound.

Deathless Curetes, by your pow'r alone,
Initial rites to men at first were shewn:
Who shake old Ocean thund'ring to the sky,
And stubborn oaks with branches waving high. 

'Tis your's in glittering arms the earth to beat,
With lightly-leaping, rapid, sounding feet;
Then every beast the noise terrific flies,
And the loud tumult wanders thro' the skies:
The dust your feet excites with matchless force,
Flies to the clouds amidst their whirling course;
And ev'ry flower of variegated hue,
Grows in the dancing motion form'd by you.
Immortal dæmons, to your pow'rs consign'd
The talk to nourish, and destroy mankind.

When rushing furious with loud tumult dire,
O'erwhelm'd, they perish in your dreadful ire;
And live replenish'd with the balmy air,
The food of life, committed to your care.

When shook by you, the seas, with wild uproar,
Wide-spreading, and profoundly whirling, roar:
The concave heav'ns, with Echo's voice resound,
When leaves with ruffling noise bestrew the ground.

Curetes, Corybantes, ruling kings,
Whose praise the land of Samothracia sings:
From Jove descended; whose immortal breath
Sustains the soul, and wafts her back from death;
Aerial-form'd, much-fam'd, in heav'n ye shine
Two-fold, in heav'n all-lucid and divine:
Blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs, 
Nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings.

Mars
and the Calendar

The word "March" comes from the Roman God Mars, personifying passion and forcefulness and masculine energy and sexuality. According to Proclus (Repub. p. 388), Mars' essential role is to contribute energy, to constantly excite the contrarieties of the universe, and to perpetually discern the sound from the unsound,  and that the world may be complete. But he requires the assistance of Venus, that he may insert order and harmony into things contrary and discordant. Current evolutionary biology notes the same dynamic!

In the old Roman calendar, March was the first month of the year.  The doors of the Temple of Mars were ceremonially opened, beginning the period in which warfare might be conducted. 

Mar's day is called Tuesday, in honor of the Germanic martial deity Tiwas.