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Mars, once upon a time, was a Roman god of farmland and fertility. Romans prayed to him to bless their crops, farm animals, and the like. The name of the month March arose frrom the traditional beginning of the Roman planting season. The Romans also gave much honor to Mars, as they traced the heritage of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, to Mars' parentage.
Once the Romans came into contact with Greek culture, however, their god Mars began to take on many of the characteristics of the Greek god Ares, a god of war. His powers extended to battles, not just to plantings and harvestings. Mars was then also linked to Venus, as Ares had been linked to the comparable Aphrodite. And even the reddish, bloody "star of Ares" that the Greeks watched at night became known as Mars.
The planet Mars was an important destination and setting for many cosmic voyages of the late 19th century, especially as it became more definitely understood that the Moon was almost surely lifeless. Writers such as Athanasius Kirscher, Emanuel Swedenborg, W.S. Lach-Szyrma, and George Griffith, who had all sent readers on expeditions to planets like Mercury and Venus, made their obligatory stops on Mars.
After the misinterpretation of Italian astronomer Schiapparelli's sighing of "canals" on Mars, the thought that there were advanced, intelligent civilizations on Mars swept the world, led in part by men like Percival Lowell. In his book Mars (1896) Lowell became the eager proponent of intelligent life on Mars, and described it as a cool, arid world that was entirely capable of sustaining life.
H.G. Well's War of the Worlds (1898) served to shape the thoughts of generations, firmly establishing the "Martian Monster" image in the nation's psyche. Other notable works include C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet (1938) and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles (1946-50).
In the 1950's, treatment of Mars as home for Martians began to shift mainly to Mars as possible home for humans. The problems of colonization of worlds like Mars were examined by the famed Arthur C. Clarke in Sands of Mars (1951) and Robert Heinlein's Red Planet (1949), among others.
As it became more and more apparent that little green men were not waiting just beyond the Martian horizon, and that Mars was most likely not home to intelligent life, the tone of the fiction began to shift yet again. Ludek Pesek, in his award-winning The Earth is Near (1970) tells of a mission to Mars in which the members become obsessed with the idea of life and relentlessly search for it in impossible circumstances. Who knows what the discovery of the controversial possible signs of life in the Martian meteorite might do for science fiction -- or what the discoveries of Pathfinder might do!
It didn't take long for Mars movies to arrive.. The first science fiction film is generally regarded to be Georges Melies' silent A Trip to the Moon (1902). In 1913, Thomas Edison released a short film entitled A Trip to Mars. Intelligent, if misguided Martian life was also featured early on. Aelita, a film produced in the USSR in 1924, shows the USSR triumphing over a society of overly capitalistic Martians.
The films became more and more mainstream, and gradually descended into the campy by the mid 1950's. Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938). Abbot and Costello Go to Mars (1953). My Favorite Martian, (1963). And of course, the classics Devil Girl from Mars (1953) and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964).
More recently, Mars has not been popular as a source of movie topics. While aliens are always hot (Just look at Independence Day (1996), very few have come from Mars, except for the self-mocking Mars Attacks! (1996).
Rather than talk about the influence of Mars on art, we'd rather show you. Sources of space art on the Web include...
