Greek Philosophers: How Kratos Is A Greek God

Kratos is a Greek God who is believed to be the personification of strength, power and sovereign rule. It is quoted in "Hesiod Theogony 383, Apollodorus 1.9, Hyginus Preface" that he is the son of Pallas and Styx and brother to three siblings; Zealous representative of rivalry, Nike symbolic of victory and Bia who's symbolised force. The three siblings were guardians of Zeus' throne and there is also a theory that Kratos is the illegitimate son of Zeus. He is mentioned as being the protector of Zeus' throne in "Plato, Protagoras 321d (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :" in which he is posted on guard to stop Prometheus from entering and stealing fire to bring to man.

Kratos has numerous mentions in Greek canon scattered throughout

Eventually Kratos develops an ego and believes he can do anything so he leads his army against the barbarians and is subsequently defeated and in his dying moments called out to Ares and said he would serve him if he granted him victory. Ares complied and left Kratos to serve under him for ten years. After he agreed to serve him Ares forged blades from the depths of Tartarus for Kratos to use. Eventually he is ordered by Ares to attack a village filled with Athena's worshippers and in his bloodlust Ares moves his (Kratos') family into the village and he ends up killing them accidentally. The motivation behind this was that Ares believed by killing Kratos' family it would mean it would allow him to become the perfect warrior breaking all links to his past life. The action of killing his family however did the opposite he stated he no longer wished to serve under Ares and the Oracle of the massacred village cursed Kratos by binding his families ashes to him which is the reason behind his

As you would expect the game has extremely embellished the story of Kratos and going far more in depth than any Greek canon. Fascinatingly the creators of the game stated they did not base the character off the Greek God but only used his name, however the connection gets stringer than just the name if you go more in depth. For example a clear similarity is that of the chains that are so pivotal in the game (the weapons gifted to Kratos by Ares when he makes a deal with him) and the correlation to one of Kratos' more significant mentions in which he ties Prometheus down on Zeus' orders. Furthermore, many significant characters are mentioned showing there are true similarities of the game and canon.

A less significant but still fascinating similarity is that of the story of Typhon. In Greek canon typhon is created by Mother Earth and Tartarus after her titans are defeated by Zeus and Hercules (the lion skinned mortal) and he arrives at Olympus and all the Gods flee but Zeus is convinced to come back and fight him. Kratos as a almost "lackey" of Zeus also returns and together they defeat Typhon and he is trapped under Mt Etna. The game involves Kratos visiting Typhon which complies with the story of how he was trapped under the mountain by Zeus but after that point the game leaves canon.
A screen shot from God of War 2 in which Kratos is fighting Typhon the aforementioned monster to escape and