TO the earliest stargazers, the planet Mars was a fearful omen suspended in the sky. The Babylonians took its strange reddish hue as a warning of bloodshed and fire, and the ancient Syrians sought to ward off such evils with human sacrifices. The Greeks, who called it Ares, and the Romans, to whom it was Mars, both regarded it as the god of war. To this day, the martial shield and spear remain the symbol for the red planet.
Modern science has long since dispelled most of the ancient myths. Yet it has failed...
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