latro's greek and combat competence

I don't know if this is worthy of posting, but oh well. If we accept that the minor gods of the pantheon can immerse themselves in human flesh for a time, Latro's great fighting ability and his facility in speaking Greek are quite easily explained. He's always known how to fight - it is his very nature. Of course the God of war would be up on the latest trends in armed combat - and might even innovate a few himself, or know them anachronistically. And he's always heard the greek words of his worshippers, but never had to write for himself - minor gods only need to speak to followers, not to write for themselves. There is one point I want explained before I abandon my "Latro is Ares" theory. The high priest of Pleistorus indicates that his god, the god of war, has been missing for some time. Where has he gone? Why is he missing? I think that he's missing because he's been trapped in mortal flesh - divine light ensconced in the guise of a soldier - "Latro". I think we are approaching Latro's abilities from a far too "realistic" standpoint - I just don't think these Soldier novels embedded in harsh empirical realism, where everything can be explained through historical contiguity and cultural history. I don't think Latro is fully human, so he exhibits some qualities which are inexplicable, like the ability to touch human beings and make them susceptible to the touch of other gods. That seems a little odd to me, and it seems to indicate that Latro can do that because he is both fully god and fully man - sharing both worlds, making divinity real to man and men real to the divine. Of course, that could just be my misreading of his power. Marc Aramini

Marc theorizes: If we accept that the minor gods of the pantheon can immerse themselves in human flesh for a time, Latro's great fighting ability and his facility in speaking Greek are quite easily explained...he's always heard the greek words of his worshippers, but never had to write for himself - minor gods only need to speak to followers, not to write for themselves. Crush counters: He's presumably never had to write Latin either. Is this the language of the gods? ;-) And why does translate place names spoken in Greek? Lakodaemonia, Sparta, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Mesopotamia, etc. Surely the names would have been familiar to Ares. Why does he make the mistake that Sparta has something to do with Rope-makers or that Lakodaemonia is a Silent Country? Why does he feel the need to translate place names into Latin and not the names of persons. That is what one does in a foreign country (for example, like calling the Yangtze the "Yellow River". Just thinkin' -- Crush

Another: Why does the god of war need wrestling lessons from Heracles? Latro is meant, I believe, to be a "hero" in the full greek sense. If anything I think it may weaken the story in a sense to consider him Ares (in any sense more than Hector, for example, was Ares on occasion in the Iliad).