Cratos

In Greek mythology, Cratos was a son of the Titan Pallas and the goddess Styx. He was the personification of strength and power. Cratos had three siblings: Nike ("victory"), Bia ("force"), and Zelus ("zeal"). They were often depicted as winged protectors of Zeus. The name is derived from the common noun Κράτος, meaning "force", "strength", or "power". The spellings "Cratus" and "Kratos" are also used.

In Mythology
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 binds Prometheus on the order of Hephaestus.

Media & Literature

 * In the video game series God Of War, Kratos is a Spartan warrior who is revealed to be a son of Zeus. Ironically, his videogame counterpart defies Zeus, and actually overthrows 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.


 * In the Dark Hunter novel "Dream Warrior" by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Cratus has been stripped of his god powers and cast out of Olympus for defying Zeus's orders to kill an infant. He is punished by being killed every night for all eternity, only to rise the next morning. Cratus takes the name Jericho and claims that Cratus died a long time ago.