This article is about the Greek personification. For other uses, see Kratos. In Greek mythology, Cratos (English translation: "strength") was a son of Pallas and Styx, and he was the personification of strength and power. Cratos and his siblings, Nike, Bia and Zelus, were all companions of Zeus.
The spelling Kratos would be more faithful to the original Greek spelling, which is Κράτος. The Latinized spelling Cratus has also been used.
Cratos simply accepts Zeus's orders completely. Zeus's justice, for Cratos, is the only possible justice. Cratos cannot understand how someone might fail to hate an enemy of Zeus. He shows an absolute identification of a slave with his master, taking Zeus's thoughts as his thoughts and Zeus's orders as his maxims. Unlike Hephaestus and Oceanus, Cratos experiences no friendship or pity because he has no value system outside the one imposed on him by Zeus. In another strand of myth, Cratos is a Titan who blinds Prometheus on order of Hephaestus.
Popular culture
- In the God of War series of video games, Kratos is a Spartan warrior who is revealed to be a son of Zeus. Ironically, his videogame counterpart defies Zeus, and actually tries to overthrow him.
- In the final volume of the manga series Because I'm the Goddess, Cratos (mistranslated as "Clatos" in the English printing) appears as a smiling, gigantic brute whom Zeus orders to kill the goddess Pandora.
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