They stole the Mead of Poetry from a Jotunn, and then killed him when he tried to retrieve it. The Aesir tried to trick the Jotunn that built the walls of Asgard for them so that they would not have to pay, and then killed him. In the creation myth, Odin killed the first giant Ymir because he was producing too many offspring and killed most of the living Jotunn in the flood of blood that followed. There are many examples of morally questionable actions and behavior. The Aesir gods are never described in the original sources as pure and good. While this is a reversal of classic Norse mythology, it is not without merit. In the game the Norse gods are the bad guys, cruelly savaging the world as they see fit. The Vikings generally portrayed the Norse gods as the heroes of the universe, protecting it from the chaotic forces of the Jotunn. The world of Norse mythology that we explore with Kratos in the game is a world turned on its head. In the first century AD, the Roman writer Tacitus equated Odin with Mercury, Thor with Hercules, and Tyr with Mars. They often understood the gods that they encountered by equating them with their own gods. The Romans, who largely shared Greek mythology but with different names for their gods, had some contact with proto-Norse religion through Germanic tribes. They grew from different traditions and the similarities that exist between them are generally those things that appear in most religions. The reality, however, is that there is little connection between Greek and Norse mythology. While there is no mention of a Kratos who is a son of Zeus in Greek mythology, considering just how many sons Zeus fathered, this isn’t really a stretch.ĭuring the Greek era, Kratos is dominated by rage, which seems to blind him to everything else, including morality.īy the time we meet Kratos again in the Norse era, he is a much more even character and is focused on being a father and mentor to his son Atreus. It is later revealed that Kratos was a demigod, one of the many sons that Zeus fathered on mortal women. He goes on to kill Ares in vengeance and takes his place as the god of war. Kratos is a Spartan warrior who is tricked into killing his entire family by Ares, the Greek god of war. Kratos is the fictional protagonist of God of War, and his origin story belongs to the original Greek setting of the game. Sadly, I have to tell you that this is complete fiction and that the game makers have taken some serious liberties with Norse mythology when creating their world.īut they haven’t got everything wrong, and their take on some elements of Norse mythology offers interesting food for thought. Some fans might be wondering how historically accurate this move is. When God of War moved from its Greek mythology timeline to Norse mythology, they took their Greek protagonist Kratos and placed him in the Norse world.
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