Kratos | |
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Personification of Strength | |
![]() Illustration by John Flaxman | |
Abode | Mount Olympus |
Personal information | |
Parents | |
Siblings | Nike, Bia, and Zelus |
Equivalents | |
Roman equivalent | Potestas |
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Ancient Greek religion |
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In Greek mythology, Kratos, also known as Cratus or Cratos, [lower-alpha 1] is the divine personification of strength. He is the son of Pallas and Styx. Kratos and his siblings Nike ('Victory'), Bia ('Force'), and Zelus ('Glory') are all the personification of a specific trait. [5] Kratos is first mentioned alongside his siblings in Hesiod's Theogony . According to Hesiod, Kratos and his siblings dwell with Zeus because their mother Styx came to him first to request a position in his regime, so he honored her and her children with exalted positions. Kratos and his sister Bia are best known for their appearance in the opening scene of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound . Acting as agents of Zeus, they lead the captive Titan Prometheus on stage. Kratos compels the mild-mannered blacksmith god Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to a rock as punishment for his theft of fire. [6]
Kratos is characterized as brutal and merciless, repeatedly mocking both Hephaestus and Prometheus and advocating for the use of unnecessary violence. He defends Zeus' oppressive rule and predicts that Prometheus will never escape his bonds. In Aeschylus' Libation Bearers , Electra calls upon Kratos, Dike ("Justice"), and Zeus to aid her brother Orestes in avenging the murder of their father Agamemnon. Kratos and Bia appear in a late fifth-century BC red-figure Attic skyphos of the punishment of Ixion, possibly based on a scene from a lost tragedy by Euripides. They also appear in late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Romantic depictions and adaptations of the binding of Prometheus.
In the preface to Fabulae by Gaius Julius Hyginus, Kratos is given the Roman name Potestas. [7]
Kratos and his siblings are first mentioned in the Theogony , which was composed by the Boeotian poet Hesiod in the late eighth or early seventh century BC. [8] [9] [10] Hesiod states: "And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bore Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer." [11] Here Kratos is merely listed as a deified abstraction with little development or explanation. [8] Hesiod goes on to explain that the reason why the children of Styx were allowed to dwell with Zeus was because Zeus had decreed after the Titanomachy that all those who had not held offices under Kronos would be given positions in his regime. [11] [9] Because Styx came to Zeus first, along with her children, Zeus honored them as among the highest members of his new regime. [11] [9] According to Diana Burton, Styx, Zelos, Nike, Kratos, and Bia's voluntary change in allegiance represents the certainty of Zeus' victory over the Titans. [10] While the goddesses Dike ("Justice"), Eunomia ("Good Law"), and Eirene ("Peace") represent the benefits of Zeus' reign, Kratos and his siblings represent the work needed to build that regime. [10]
In the opening scene of the tragedy Prometheus Bound , which is traditionally attributed to Aeschylus, Kratos and his sister Bia are taking Prometheus to a remote location in the Scythian wilderness, where he will be chained to a rocky outcropping. [1] [14] [15] The order to do this was given by Zeus himself [1] [14] [15] and Kratos and Bia are portrayed as the embodiment of Zeus' new regime. [8] [13] The presence of Kratos and Bia but absence of Nike and Zelos indicates the play's tyrannical portrayal of Zeus, since Kratos and Bia represent the more tyrannical aspects of authority. [16] Kratos in particular represents what Ian Ruffell calls "the kind of uncomplicated thug for whom despotic regimes offer countless job opportunities." [8] He enforces the power of Zeus through physical brutality and pitilessness. [8] [13] Bia, though present in the scene, does not have any lines; only Kratos speaks. [17] [18]
Kratos coerces the mild-mannered blacksmith god Hephaestus into chaining Prometheus to the rocky crag, despite Hephaestus' objections to this. [1] [12] [15] Hephaestus laments over Prometheus' future suffering, leading Kratos to ridicule him. [19] Kratos equates the rule of law with rule by fear [8] and condemns pity as a pointless waste of time. [8] Hephaestus and Kratos agree that Zeus is "oppressive" (barys; literally "heavy"). [8] Kratos regards justice (δίκη; dikê) as a system of cosmic hierarchy in which the monarch, Zeus, decides who receives which privileges and who does not. [8] Anyone who breaches this social divide is a transgressor who must be punished. [8] Kratos states that, under the rule of a monarch such as Zeus, no one but Zeus himself is truly free. [20] Hephaestus agrees with this assessment. [19]
Kratos repeatedly orders Hephaestus to use more violence than necessary to inflict as much pain as possible against Prometheus. [8] [12] First he orders Hephaestus to nail Prometheus' hands to the rock. [21] Then he orders him to drive a steel wedge through his chest. [21] Finally, he orders him to tie Prometheus' legs to immobilize him. [21] Hephaestus criticizes Kratos, telling him that his speech is as ugly as his physical appearance. [22] [8] Kratos responds by telling him, "Be soft. Do not throw in my face my 'willfulness' and 'roughness of temper'." [22] [8] Once Prometheus has been bound, Hephaestus, Bia, and Kratos exit offstage, with Kratos being the last one to leave. [23] Just before his exeunt, Kratos mocks Prometheus, saying that he will never escape from his shackles [12] (which he later does, aided by Heracles) and that he does not deserve his name. [12] (Prometheus means "forethought" in Greek. [12] ) According to Robert Holmes Beck, Aeschylus' depiction of the harsh punishment of Prometheus was intended as an example of how wrongdoers must be punished to deter others from transgressing. [17] In this interpretation, Kratos' cruelty is not intended to be viewed as excessive, but rather as the proper enforcement of justice. [17]
In Aeschylus' Libation Bearers , Electra invokes Kratos, Dike, and Zeus to support her and her brother Orestes' quest to avenge the murder of their father Agamemnon by their mother Clytemnestra. [24] [25] Plato's dialogue Protagoras , written in the fourth century BC, includes an account of the legend of Prometheus in which Prometheus stole fire from the temple of Athena and Hephaestus rather than the citadel of Zeus because the "guards of Zeus" (Διὸς φυλακαί; Dios phylakai) were too frightening. [26] [27] [28] The identity of these "guards" is unknown and disputed. [29]
Depictions of Kratos and Bia in ancient Greek art are extremely rare. [30] [31] [32] The only known surviving depiction of Kratos and Bia in ancient Greek pottery is on a fragmentary red-figure skyphos by the Meidias Painter, or a member of his circle, that is dated to the end of the fifth century BC and depicts the punishment of Ixion. [30] [33] The vase is in the private collection of Herbert Cahn in Basel, Switzerland, and only a bit of hair belonging to Kratos is still visible on the remaining fragments. [34] [35] One of Bia's hands is visible on the wheel that Ixion is bound to, steadying it. [33] H. A. Shapiro conjectures that this is probably a representation of a scene from the lost tragedy Ixion by Euripides, who likely borrowed the figures of Kratos and Bia from Prometheus Bound. [36] Kratos is listed as one of the sons of Pallas and Styx in the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. [37]
In 1772, Thomas Morell published his English translation of Prometheus Bound as Prometheus in Chains, making the work widely available to the British public for the first time. [39] Four years afterwards, the abolitionist Richard Potter published a complete English translation of all Aeschylus' tragedies. [39] The scene from Prometheus Bound in which Hephaestus chains Prometheus to a mountainside with the aid of Kratos and Bia captured the imagination of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Romantics [40] and became a lens through which they analyzed questions of the relationships between revolution and tyranny, slavery and freedom, and war and peace. [40]
Richard Porson's 1795 translation of Prometheus Bound was illustrated with drawings by John Flaxman showing the famous binding scene. [39] Between 1798 and 1799, George Romney produced a series of chalk drawings of scenes from Prometheus Bound, including the binding scene with Kratos and Bia. [39] In both Flaxman and Romney's illustrations, Kratos and Bia are shown together in symmetry. [39] In 1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley adapted the myth of Prometheus for his own play Prometheus Unbound . [41]
In Gabriel Fauré's three-act opera Prométhée , first performed in 1900 with a French libretto written by the poets Jean Lorrain and André-Ferdinand Hérold, the scene from the beginning of Prometheus Bound in which Kratos coerces Hephaestus into binding Prometheus is closely paraphrased. [42] Hephaestus' dialogue with Kratos is set to music containing "impressionist allusions to the whole-tone scale". [43] Fauré was known for his soft, genteel chamber music and the "hateful fury" of the music behind Kratos and Bia's dialogue stunned audiences. [43]
A character named Kratos appears in the God of War video game franchise, the first seven games of which are based on Greek mythology. [2] [44] [45] The character is portrayed as what classical scholar Sylwia Chmielewski calls "a deeply tragic, Herculean anti-hero who, after murdering his family, has to wash away the miasma to regain his peace of mind." [44] The video game character Kratos was given his name at a late stage in the development of the original 2005 game, after the character had already been fleshed out. [46] Unaware of the actual mythological god named Kratos appearing in Prometheus Bound, the creators coincidentally chose the name Kratos, the same Greek word meaning "Strength", of which the mythological figure Kratos is the personification. [3] [46] Stig Asmussen, the director of 2010's God of War III , called the naming coincidence a "happy mistake", [46] noting that the Kratos in the game and the one in Prometheus Bound are both "pawns". [46] Zoran Iovanovici of California State University, Long Beach observed with irony that, while the mythological Kratos is best known for chaining Prometheus, in 2007's God of War II , the video game character releases him. [46] Chmielewski states that the video game character Kratos draws extensively on other figures from Greek mythology, including the heroes Perseus, Theseus, and Achilles, [44] [2] but his strongest influence is the hero Heracles. [44] The Greek-based games portray Kratos as brutal and violent towards innocents. [47] [45] In God of War III, he destroys the vast majority of the Greek gods, who are portrayed as "corrupted and vengeful", and restores the original state of primordial chaos to Greece. [48]
Hephaestus is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes. Hephaestus's Roman counterpart is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of Zeus and Hera or he was Hera's parthenogenous child. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mother Hera because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment; or in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is one of the Titans and a god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization.
In Greek mythology, Styx, also called the River Styx, is a goddess and river of the Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with Zeus in his war against the Titans, and because of this, to honor her, Zeus decreed that the solemn oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of Styx.
The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. It is one of the most important sources for the understanding of early Greek cosmology.
Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first syllable of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), with six male Titans—Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus—and six female Titans, called the Titanides or Titanesses—Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.
In Greek mythology, Oceanus was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods and the Oceanids, as well as being the great river which encircled the entire world.
In Greek mythology, Tartarus is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's Gorgias, souls are judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus appears in early Greek cosmology, such as in Hesiod's Theogony, where the personified Tartarus is described as one of the earliest beings to exist, alongside Chaos and Gaia (Earth).
In Greek mythology and religion, Themis is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, law, and custom. She is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is associated with oracles and prophecies, including the Oracle of Delphi. Her symbol is the Scales of Justice.
In Greek mythology, Bia is the personification of force. According to the preface to Fabulae by Gaius Julius Hyginus, Bia's Roman name was Vis.
In Greek mythology, the Oceanids or Oceanides are the nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.
In Greek mythology, Zelus or Zelos was the daimon that personifies dedication, emulation, eager rivalry, envy, jealousy, and zeal. The English word "zeal" is derived from his name.
Typhon, also Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However, one source has Typhon as the son of Hera alone, while another makes Typhon the offspring of Cronus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters.
Menoetius or Menoetes, meaning doomed might, is a name that refers to three distinct beings from Greek mythology:
In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaia, a sister and wife of the Titan Oceanus, and the mother of the river gods and the Oceanids. Although Tethys had no active role in Greek mythology and no established cults, she was depicted in mosaics decorating baths, pools, and triclinia in the Greek East, particularly in Antioch and its suburbs, either alone or with Oceanus.
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus is the twin brother of Prometheus, the pair serving "as representatives of mankind". Both sons of the Titan Iapetus, while Prometheus ("foresight") is ingeniously clever, Epimetheus ("hindsight") is inept and foolish. In some accounts of the myth, Epimetheus unleashes the unforeseen troubles in Pandora's box.
Prometheus Bound is an ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante quem of 424 BC. The tragedy is based on the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who defies Zeus, and protects and gives fire to mankind, for which he is subjected to the wrath of Zeus and punished.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Phoebe is one of the first generation of Titans, who were one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia. She was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis, and the witchcraft goddess Hecate. According to myth, she was the original owner of the site of the Oracle of Delphi before gifting it to her grandson Apollo. Her name, meaning "bright", was also given to a number of lunar goddesses like Artemis and later the Roman goddesses Luna and Diana, but Phoebe herself was not actively treated as a moon goddess in her own right in ancient mythology.
The Prometheia is a trilogy of plays about the Titan Prometheus. It was attributed in Antiquity to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Though an Alexandrian catalogue of Aeschylean play titles designates the trilogy Hoi Prometheis, in modern scholarship the trilogy has been designated the Prometheia to mirror the title of Aeschylus' only extant trilogy, the Oresteia. Unlike the Oresteia, only one play from this trilogy—Prometheus Bound—survives. Inasmuch as the authorship of Prometheus Bound continues to be debated, the very existence of a Prometheus trilogy is uncertain. To the extent that modern scholars postulate the existence of such a trilogy by a single author, the consensus holds that it comprised Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, in that order.
In Greek mythology, Clymene or Klymene is the name of one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs, usually the wife of Iapetus and mother by him of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas and Menoetius.
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