
Wonder Woman’s shield also has a strong link to the ancient times. Why is Wonder Woman’s shield called an aegis? Curiously, Jenkins chose to depict the Amazons, the race of warrior-women who raise young Diana, as Ares’s enemies in Greek myth, they are his daughters. It’s appropriate that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins casts Ares as a villain in the context of World War I, since Ares represents the untamed, savage side of warfare, which in World War I was represented by the brutal fighting in the trenches, machine guns, and mustard gas. (Their names Phobos and Deimos, which translate to Fear and Terror, probably won’t appear on a list of Top Baby Names any time soon). On top of this, Ares is also a bad parent, forcing his two kiddos to pull his chariot. Zeus tells Ares in the Iliad: “To me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympus. Forever quarreling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.” Part of what makes Ares so unlikeable is that he’s a bloodthirsty warmonger. His name literally means “destroyer,” and comes from the Greek word are, meaning “bane, ruin, curse,” so he’s pretty much bad news personified. In both Greek myth and in the Wonder Woman movie, one of Zeus’s greatest enemies is the war god Ares. Ares, or the destroyer who ruins everything And when a weather god needs to lay down some whoop-ass on his foes, he of course busts out his trusty thunderbolts. A traditional prayer for rain was “Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, on the cornland of the Athenians and on the plains.” It was also a colloquial expression to say, “Zeus is raining,” whenever it started pouring. Zeus was thought to control the weather-you know, like Storm in the X-Men series.
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His full name was Zeus Pater, which means “Sky Father.” But Zeus’s most important power to ancient Greeks was his ability to make it rain (literally, not just in dollar bills).

Diana tells Steve Trevor that Zeus created her out of clay in order to thwart the evil plans of the war god Ares. The Greek god Zeus (in the Roman: Jupiter) figures prominently in the 2017 Wonder Woman movie. She is also the goddess of childbirth, and like Diana in the 2017 Wonder Woman movie, you can guess that she loved babies. Ancient authors refer to her as Potnia Theron, Mistress of the Animals because, like Doctor Dolittle, she’s constantly surrounded by them. That’s not to say Diana didn’t have a soft spot in her heart for some creatures. She was also smart and fiercely independent as Shakespeare has Romeo say of Rosalind: “She’ll not be hit With Cupid’s arrow. A powerful hunter and skilled archer, she fought with the same mix of power and finesse as Wonder Woman.

Diana was known as a wild and free-spirited goddess who hung out in the mountains, woods, and meadows. Wonder Woman is named after the Roman goddess Diana (whose Greek equivalent is Artemis). They also show that whether we’re talking about today’s superheroes or the gods of yore, a well-chosen name can certainly help a character achieve lasting fame. In doing this, Marston placed Wonder Woman smack-dab in the middle of a world of Greek and Roman gods and heroes whose names tell us fascinating things about their powers and personalities. When William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman in the early 1940s, he envisioned her not only as Diana, an Amazon princess, but also a goddess descended from Zeus. Superman is a literal translation of Friedrich Nietszche’s term ubermensch.Īnd Wonder Woman is … well, what does Wonder Woman’s name tell us about her?Ī lot, it turns out. The metallic gold decorated molded plastic shield has Amazonian text and a proud eagle on the front as well as elastic bands for easy wear on your arm.Spider-Man slings webs like a radioactive spider. So, get that defensive score up a few extra notches with this DC Dawn of Justice Wonder Woman Shield and show off some extreme elegance at the same time. Sure, a shield might seem like bringing some backup pencils when you’re working on a computer, but you’ll never regret being over prepared. But, what happens when you’re suddenly face to face with a world destroyer who can eat super powered heroes for lunch and still ask for seconds? Well, when you’re that far into trouble, your day is done… unless you’ve given some thought to some extra protection! Conquering another super powered villain? Well, you’re looking at a more difficult day, but we all know that you’ll pull through. Taking down some thugs committing crimes and scaring the populous? Pretty easy stuff. You’ve got some pretty awesome powers at your disposal that help you overcome various threats with relative ease. The thing about being a superhero is that everything is hunky dory until it suddenly isn’t.
