So I found this interesting ditty doing research for my book. Supposedly, it comes from the Suda Lexicon compiled by the Byzantines around the 10th century A.D.
“Theus Ares (Dushrara); this is the god Ares in Arabic Petra. They worship the god Ares and venerate him above all. His statue is an unworked square black stone. It is four foot high and two feet wide. It rests on a golden base. They make sacrifices to him and before him they anoint the blood of the sacrifice that is their anointment.”
A few small, quick observations: one, that this syncretic Ares is the chief god of their pantheon, which could be one reason the region turns out such good warriors–they’d want to make their god proud. Second, that his icon is a square, black stone, much like the Kaaba. Three, they perform anointing with the blood much in the way I personally do when blood is involved in my rituals. I never really had a source for that, but they, I figure that if I do have past lives, many of them were in fact Arab. Then of course there’s the fun, personal coincidence that Petra is the feminine form of my name… Ah the things you learn.
Aspis of Ares 