Agriculture and War

[Aldarion]

While building divine landscape for my setting, I noticed that much like Roman Mars, Slavic Jarilo was both a god of agriculture and a god of war. This reminded me that Scandinavian Thor is also a god of agriculture and war both, and quick research has shown that Mesopotamian Ninurta and Nin-Girsu (who may or may not be one and the same) also had this dual nature.

From this it would appear that Greek separation of war from agriculture (Ares and Demeter) was an exception rather than rule, which would indicate that the two were heavily linked in premodern societies. Is there any research covering this topic, and do you think the above reasoning is correct?

 

[pmmg]

I think you might find that, while the pantheons you mention, kind of make the main stream of pantheons people know, and there is some similarity between them, it is not exclusive enough, or approaching a total of all pantheons. If the list was to expand, you might find there are many cultures with pantheons who did not combine these two.

Further, many gods, in many pantheons cover many overlapping realms. In the Norse, there was Gefjon, a goddess of agriculture. So...to say that war and agriculture got combined a lot, is to overlook that many roles got over lapped and combined for many gods and spheres of influence.

The Greeks were notorious for have many more gods in their pantheons than others, and so, they had more ability to divide out the sphere's and not give as many gods as many multiple roles.

And, along with that, many of these pantheons are kind of blended in with the pantheons around them. The geographic region is not so large that the formation of one, was not some type of evolution of the other, and so, it would not be unexpected that some gods filled similar roles as pantheons spread and morphed between peoples.

Which is all to say, It may be true, there is something there, but it would be hard to know. My suspicion is, if the complete set of pantheons could be known, it would dilute the supposition that there was of some human understanding that had these become combined both often and organically on their own.

However...I might also suspect, that war leading to rebirth might spark in the minds and hearts of far away peoples.

 

[Finchbearer]

From my own writing research Lugh comes to mind from Celtic mythology - both a God of agriculture and war, however many Celtic Gods (that were written about) were heavily localised and more were associated with agriculture and fertility. So I have a God in my own work of fiction who is a female deity as a Goddess of harvests and fertility, which also makes sense - fruitfulness = fertility.

Agriculture and war also makes sense because you’re talking about land disputes and sovereignty. I imagine many, many wars were started over arable land. Beyond hunter gatherer and foraging practices, and into the agricultural age, arable land meant food and food meant survival. Beyond that, arable land meant sovereignty.

Dual natured Gods and Goddesses also makes a lot of sense.

 

[Gurkhal]

I could also add that for many cultures and times, such as the Romans up until the late republic, the same people who plows the fields in peace are the same people doning arms in times of war. Hence this connection might also be a reason as to why, for example, the Romans thought that a god like Mars was invested and helpful in both these spheres.