“Mars, Mars, bane of men, blood-stained stormer of walls,”[36]—
this deity, always changing sides, and implacable, as Epicharmus says, was a Spartan; Sophocles knew him for a Thracian; others say he was an Arcadian. This god, Homer says, was bound thirteen months:
“Mars had his sufferings; by Alöeus’ sons,
Otus and Ephialtes, strongly bound,
He thirteen months in brazen fetters lay.”[37]
Good luck attend the Carians, who sacrifice dogs to him! And may the Scythians never leave off sacrificing asses, as Apollodorus and Callimachus relate:
“Phœbus rises propitious to the Hyperboreans,
When they offer sacrifices of asses to him.”
And the same in another place:
“Fat sacrifices of asses’ flesh delight Phœbus.”