Cratos, the God of Strength: Who Kratos Really is in Greek Mythology - God of War Explained

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss who Cratos really is in Greek mythology. We're going to start off with a quick overview of the video game character who shares the same name for those unfamiliar with him, and then we're going to cover virtually everything there is to say about Cratos, the Greek god of strength, which is far more feasible than it sounds, for he plays a smaller role in Greek mythology than most other gods. Our discussion about Cratos can be broken down into three segments: his role as one of the guardians of Zeus' citadel, his betrayal of the Titans, and his chaining of the Titan Prometheus.Let's get into it. The protagonist of the beloved God of War Franchise, Kratos is one of the most popular video game characters of all time. Before he moved North to begin a new life of anonymity in a stark land ruled over by Norse gods, Kratos destroyed Olympus and exterminated the Greek pantheon. So complete was the destruction he unleashed that even the realm over which the Greek gods ruled was literally unmade, reduced to a place of chaos and cataclysm once devoid of the godly power needed to keep the elements in order. For example: when Helios was killed, the sun was extinguished, darkened by the black shroud of an opaque ceiling of cloud cover; when Poseidon was killed, the seas rose and flooded the land, and when Zeus was killed, the sky became a great tempest - all wind, lightning, and tornadoes. The Greek saga is punctuated by kratos running himself through with the blade of Olympus, a grievous, self-inflicted wound that, while not a mortal blow, does succeed in destroying, intentionally so, a great power that existed with him, the power of hope, which he became imbued with when he opened Pandora's Box near the end of the original God of war game.