Of Gods and Wars

(Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Atropos [the Fates]).

How many of you were disappointed when the Titans lost to the Gods in the great war of ancient Greek mythology? Well, I was one of the disappointed, and ever since I was 6 years old, I have been wishing things had been different!

(William Blake. Hecate or the Three Fates).

Well, apparently now, things can be different thanks to God of War 2! "God of War" is a reinterpretation of Greek myths for our times, and I think it is largely based on the movie Clash of the Titans (true, the movie might not be the best, but as a kid, I had no other Greek mythology movie to compare against, and thus, it became the standard). Both, God of War, and Clash of the Titans, have Perseus (and the same actor is in both!!) Medusa, Pegasus, the Fates, and yes, both even have a Kraken (and a suspiciously humanoid Kraken for all that matters).

(Sandro Botticelli, Venus and Mars --i.e. Aphrodite and Ares)

One can argue that there are some inaccuracies (how can Gaia help someone who keeps killing Cyclopes? and the Kraken is not a Greek myth!), it is important to remember that in Greek mythology, there were always several versions of the stories, and in that sense "God of War" actually follows the essence of Greek myths very faithfully!

(Sir Anthony van Dyck: Jupiter--i.e.,Zeus-- and Antiope)

For example, it is known that Zeus was not a fateful husband, in fact he had many offspring, by either tricking and seducing several women, or even, by raping them. Several of his sons (such as Heracles, or Perseus) turned out to be famous heroes. Now Kratos, the main character in God of War, appears to be the average Greek hero and tragic figure (although a bit more vengeful than the average hero). The Gods play with his destiny as most Gods play with humans in Greek mythology. However, I never saw coming the obvious: the father of Kratos is Zeus! This is just one of the big surprises of the storyline, and it makes perfect sense according to Greek myths.


(Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Saturn --i.e., Cronus-- Devouring One of his Children)


The other fact that makes perfect sense, according to the Greek myths, is that the son (Kratos) is going to try and depose his father (Zeus), in the fashion that has plagued Greek mythology from the beginning: Uranus was deposed by his son Cronus, and Cronus was deposed by his son Zeus. Now I am sure I read somewhere about a story of a prophesy that one of the sons of Zeus was going to depose him (when I read that prophesy I felt cheated, the Greeks myths never continued, and this prophesy never came to happen!). But now, this is the thing that has me really excited about God of War 3: the fact that finally the Titans are going to get the chance of fighting back against the Gods, and that I am going to see a detailed recreation of each God (hopefully) and Titan. Hopefully in the sequel, the Gods will appear much more often, and we get to see all of them in action :-).

(Joachim Wtewael. The Battle Between the Gods and the Titans.)