Kratos' Family Tree Explained (God of War)

Kratos’ Family Tree Explained

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The 10 WORST Things to Happen to Kratos

Kratos has a legacy of being the most violent protagonist in gaming. While he’s slain plenty of innocents, some of the blood on his hands comes from his own family, some who deserved it and some who didn’t. Kratos’ family tree has many important branches, not all of which hold powerful deities. Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re exploring Kratos’ complicated and bloodsoaked family tree.

Kratos grew up in Sparta with his mother Callisto and his younger brother Deimos. Although, he wouldn’t find out that his father was Zeus, God of Thunder, until much later. A prophecy foretold the destruction of Olympus at the hands of a ‘marked warrior.’ As Deimos was born with a sizable birthmark on his face and torso, Zeus assumed him the culprit and sent Ares and Athena to capture him. While Deimos was carried away, Kratos was powerless to help his brother. And he would eventually get his iconic tattoo as a way to honor Deimos. Set between the first and second game of the series, “Ghost of Sparta” would pick back up on Callisto & Deimos. Kratos found his mother in Atlantis, where she revealed that Deimos was still alive. Tragically, she was then transformed into a hideous beast Kratos had to fight. Callisto ended up dying in her son’s arms. While she felt peace, Kratos certainly didn’t. He attempted to rescue Deimos from the clutches of Thanatos, God of Death, who held and tortured Deimos for years. Unfortunately, this too would end in tragedy, but Kratos would get vengeance on Thanatos on his brother’s behalf.

Before Deimos was captured, the brothers trained to one day join the Spartan army. Kratos ended up fulfilling that dream, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. During this time, he met and married a Spartan woman named Lysandra. Together, they had a daughter named Calliope and, for a while, Kratos was happy. However, if you know anything about “God of War” history, you know things didn’t turn out well for this family. After signing his life away to Ares, the God of War devised a test for Kratos. With the added benefit of harming his sister Athena, Ares ordered Kratos to attack a village that worshiped her. Under Ares’ spell of bloodlust, Kratos accidentally murdered his own wife and child. Cursed by the village’s Oracle to forever be stained with their ashes, he became the Ghost of Sparta. While this would be the last time Kratos saw Lysandra outside of visions, he’d see Calliope again in the afterlife. Having died so young, she was allowed into the Elysium Fields, where pure souls rest. But even that reunion was tinged with sorrow as Kratos was the only one who could stop Persephone from destroying all life.

Finding out Zeus was his father must have come as quite a shock to Kratos. But it also meant he inherited one of the most dysfunctional families of all time. Just as Zeus would one day hear of a prophecy of Olympus’ downfall, his Titan father Cronos was told a prophecy that one of his own children would lead to his defeat. To avoid it, Cronos ate his children, but was tricked by his wife Rhea to secure Zeus’ safety, who was then a newborn. Raised by the Titan Gaia, Zeus would return to free his siblings and defeat the Titans, trapping them in Tartarus. Kratos’ father, uncles, and grandfather are exceptionally powerful. But the marked warrior prophecy was unavoidable. In “God of War III,” neither the God of the Sea nor the ruler of the Underworld were a match for Kratos. Even Cronos, massive though he may be, was unable to stop the Ghost of Sparta. Zeus may have actually been grateful to Kratos for slaying his problematic pop…if Kratos didn’t quickly do the same to him. Although the ending of the Greek Saga saw Kratos victorious, it wasn’t a happy ending. But there was a lot more bloodshed even before that.

Kratos’ Siblings

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15 Greek Gods Kratos DIDN'T Actually Kill In God Of War

Greek mythology tells us that Zeus liked to sleep around…a lot. While “God of War” doesn’t feature all of Zeus’ children, it does include the most well-known ones. Two were birthed by Hera, Goddess of Women and Marriage and Zeus’ sister wife: the previous God of War, Ares, and the Smith God, Hephaestus. Kratos murdered Ares out of vengeance long before he knew him to be his half-brother. And he killed Hephaestus in “God of War III” out of self defense. That’s far from the only sibling Kratos killed, however. In “God of War II,” he met and very swiftly killed his half-brother Perseus, a demigod born from Zeus and a mortal woman, Danae. In the third game, he’d be challenged by and forced to kill another demigod half-brother, Hercules, born from Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Then there were Zeus’ actual God children: Hermes, whose mother was a Pleiade named Maia, and Athena, whose mother was a nymph named Metis. Of course, Kratos ended up killing them too. The only sibling Kratos didn’t kill was Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty. But what he did do with her isn’t exactly family friendly either. Keeping track of how Kratos is related to the various Greek gods is complicated. Though it grows a little more complex when you factor in their children. Ares had a son named Orkos, seen in “God of War: Ascension.” Hermes had a son named Ceryx, seen in the mobile game “God of War: Betrayal.” Hephaestus also had a daughter, Pandora, seen in “God of War III.” As is befitting of the series, none of Kratos’ nieces and nephews would make it to the end of their respective games.

After defeating the Greek gods, Kratos would find his way to the Norse realm. There, he found love again in a woman named Faye. The two would have a son, Atreus, before Faye passed away. 2018’s “God of War” chronicled the troubled dynamic between Atreus and Kratos, who was still haunted by all the horrors he had committed. By the end, their bond had undeniably grown stronger, though a couple of bombs were dropped on players. For one, Faye was really Laufey the Just, a giant from Jotunheim. For another, Atreus was really Loki, the Norse trickster God. Depending on how closely Sony wants to stick to Norse Myth for “Ragnarok,” Kratos also met his grandchild in this game. In mythology, Loki has three children with the giantess Angrboda: Hel, Goddess of the Underworld, Fenrir, a massive wolf, and Jormungandr the world serpent. It is prophesied that during Ragnarok, Thor will hit Jormungandr so hard that it sends the snake back in time before his birth. With Angrboda set to appear in the sequel, we could see this come to fruition. Most of Kratos’ family tree has been obliterated by Kratos himself, whether accidental or otherwise. But Atreus is not his father. As the series continues, we’ll likely see the tree expand in unique ways as Sony has often changed certain mythological elements to fit its narrative. That is, if Kratos and Atreus can make it out of Ragnarok alive. It is an apocalyptic event, after all.