Many of you may be asking yourself: what is Mars’ Hill? What does it mean? Why does it have that pretentious little apostrophe in its name? I asked myself those same questions for two years before anyone gave me a straight answer. So here it is, the mystery revealed:

In classic mythology Mars is the Roman god of war, and Ares is his Greek equivalent. They are basically interchangeable.

The Areopagus, named after Ares, is a location in Greece where Paul preached (see Acts 17). It was an open forum for the discussion of ideas and religious thought.

Areopagus is from the Greek, Areios Pagos, translates as “The Hill of Ares.”

Since Ares and Mars are interchangeable, it can be referred to as The Hill of Mars. So in order to invert The Hill of Mars to the possessive form, Mars’ Hill, it is necessary to add the pretentious apostrophe.