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In Greek mythology, Polemos or Polemus ( Pólemos; "war") was a daemon; a divine personification or of war.Niall W. Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), p. 119. No cult practices or are known for him, and as an abstract representation he figures mainly in allegory and philosophical discourse.William Kendrick Pritchett, The Greek State at War (University of California Press, 1979), vol. 3, p. 161. The Roman mythology counterpart of this figure was Bellum.
In Aristophanes' The Acharnians, it is reported that Polemos is banned from parties for burning vineyards, emptying the wine and disrupting the singing. He is set in opposition to Dicaeopolis, who profitably champions peace and longs for marriage with Diallage, "Reconciliation". Dionysos, god of the life force, uses a vine stake as a weapon to wound the soldier Lamachus for neglecting him in favor of Polemos, but overall Aristophanes seem to be advocating a balance between Dionysos and Polemos, since the interests of the polis are served at times by peace and other times by war.Richard F. Moorton, Jr., "Dionysus or Polemos? The Double Message of Aristophanes' Acharnians," in The Eye Expanded: Life and the Arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity (University of California Press, 1999), pp. 24, 39, 42, 45.
Polemos even makes a brief speaking appearance at the end of the prologue to Aristophanes' Peace. With Tumult (Kudoimos) as his henchman, he has buried Peace under stones in a cave. Now he makes a speech in which he announces that he is going to grind all the cities of Greece in a mortar, having plagued them for ten years. However, a series of puns on the names of the cities undermines his fearsome threat, making it appear as if he is preparing a relish for a feast.Carroll Moulton, Aristophanic poetry, Göttingen 1981, p. 87 Sending Tumult to obtain a pestle sufficient for the task, he withdraws to the "house of Zeus" and does not reappear, though his potential return is a threat throughout the play. The scenario seems to be an original invention of Aristophanes.Carlo Ferdinando Russo, Aristophanes: An Author for the Stage (Routledge, 1962, 1994), pp. 135, 139, 143, 145; Slater, Spectator Politics, pp. 120, 280.
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