Would it be possible to summarize the differences between the two gods of war of the Greek pantheon by saying that Athena embodied warcraft, strategy, generalship, and the protection of cities, whereas Ares embodied battlelust, brutality, and courage? Or were both deities more or less overlapped?
I think the most straightforward distinction is that Ares frequently embodies war itself in a way that Athena never does. Alexander Millington (War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult) puts it this way: "Ares, it is clear, is not just a god who can act in war, but a god who is inextricably entangled with war. He is a constant element in the multiple levels of determination that act on all of warās events. When war is brought, it is Ares who is brought. When war is roused, Ares is roused. It is in Ares that the warriors of the Iliad join and stand and die. Much of the language used in the Iliad suggests that Ares and war are one and the same. ... War, as discussed above, is Aresā realm. War belongs to Ares, and Ares is identifiable with war, inextricable from it. When Athena first influences and manipulates, and then fights and defeats Ares, she shows the value and quality of the protection that she can offer against warās dangers. Even when war is at its most furious, its most destructive, Athenaās protective power is not only stronger than that of other divine helpers, but also stronger than the chaos of war itself."
That said, Athena can definitely be brutal as well; she too delights in battle and the sacking of cities (Homeric Hymn 11 to Athena), but she can distance herself from war to a greater degree than Ares can. "In the Iliad (5.733ff.), she arms herself for battle by removing the self-made dress that she had been wearing, and replacing it with weapons, most strikingly, the āterrible tasselled aegisā which contains the personified abstractions Phobos (Fear), Eris (Strife), Alke (Strength), blood-chilling Ioke (Pursuit), and then, most of all āthe head of the terrible monster the Gorgon, both fearful and awful to look onā. These abstractions become part of the spectacle she produces; but they are also detachable. Ares, meanwhile, has a more permanent kind of attachment with some of these figures: Phobos and Eris are even his relatives, since he is identified as the father of the former (e.g. Iliad 13.299), and the brother of the latter (Iliad 4.441). ā¦ The opposition between the deities is not so much between war as a cosmic, destructive force and ācivilised warfareā as between natural power and weaponry. It is Athenaās weapons coupled with her frenzied cry and blazing eyes that make her a deity of war and she possesses power that she could either use or turn off. Ares, meanwhile, is more closely identified with his warlike power, as may be exemplified by the description of the two gods in the Hesiodic Shield of Herakles (191ā200). āThereā, the poem recounts, āwas baneful Ares the spoil-wearer himself. In his hands he held a spear and he was urging on his foot-soldier, and he was red with bloodā. āThere, tooā, the poem continues, āwas the daughter of Zeus, bringer of spoil [ageleieĀÆ], Tritogeneia. She seemed as though she intended to arm herself for battle, since she held a spear in her hand, and a golden helmet, and the aegis about her shoulders.ā In certain respects, they are described in comparable terms. Ares is the āspoil-wearerā and Athena the ābringer of spoilā, but while Ares is covered in blood, Athena is clothed in armour. Ares is little more than the god of war. Athena is warlike when she needs to be, but she is much more besides." (Athena by Susan Deacy)
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