Talk:Kratos (mythology)

God of War

It would be interessant to link this article with the one about God of War(the videogame). It isnt greek mythology, but is based on it. Vermelhored 23:15, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Sources?

He shows an absolute identification of a slave with his master, taking Zeus' thoughts as his thoughts and Zeus' orders as his

Huh? Where on earth is this information coming from, exactly? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.180.148.27 (talk • contribs) 23:58, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

I, too, find this rather, erm, vague and unreliable information. Could we find any better information on the bloke? Or, where, yes where did that information come from? What and whom are you quoting on this? Shadowcrow (talk) 21:23, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

The whole paragraph raised my eyebrows, as I reached this page from Operation Kratos. Surely it should either be sourced or removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.72.9.25 (talk) 14:48, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Son of Zeus?

The information about him being a son of Zeus an a mortal woman must be erroneous. The article "Pallas (son of Crius)" states: "Pallas is a Titan associated with war. His family tree is disputed. Most sources indicate that he was the son of Crius and Eurybia, the brother of Astraeus and Perses, and the husband of Styx. He was the father of Zelus, Nike, Cratos, and Bia..." If there's some dispute about the matter, can someone please point to me a source stating he was the son of Zeus? If not, I'll edit the article to say he was the son of Pallas and Styx. Shadowcrow (talk) 11:15, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I'm now fairly sure this is an error. I'm now correcting this to say he was son of Pallas and Styx. See http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Kratos.html . Shadowcrow (talk) 20:56, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

"Popular culture"

This section looks like it was copypasted from a video game magazine. I am personally sure it will be just enough to say "the protagonist of a blah-blah bears the same name but is a totally different character". And that's it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FLYBAT (talk • contribs) 18:10, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Requested move 7 April 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the pages at this time, per the discussion below. Favonian (talk) 16:40, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

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• Kratos (mythology) → Kratos
• Kratos → Kratos (disambiguation)

– The current disambiguation page presents the primary topic as Kratos from God of War, which is obviously incorrect. This is the clear primary topic with historical precedent, if not sheer popularity and interest. Kratos the character's name is obviously based on this mythological individual. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 21:03, 7 April 2018 (UTC)--Relisting. Dekimasuよ! 10:47, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

• Support per nom. Iazyges Consermonor Opus meum 10:43, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:18, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Oppose. The video game character is the clear primary topic with 67 percent of the relevant page views. Not every mention of "kratos" is a reference to this rather obscure deity. Kratos is also the Greek word for "rule" (as in democracy). Nine Zulu queens (talk) 15:33, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support, with qualification Kratos the god is an extremely minor, obscure deity; he briefly appears one time towards the beginning of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, where he does not even speak, and never again in the entire corpus of Greek literature, aside from a few places where he is briefly mentioned or alluded to. I therefore actually think that the video game character probably holds greater significance (at least for modern audiences) than the actual god he is named after. Nonetheless, I think that this article could become the primary topic, if it is expanded to include information about the concept from Greek though that the god Kratos is the personification of: the concept of "might" or "power", which is a fairly important concept and, as mentioned above, is the root of our words democracy, aristocracy, and so on. --Katolophyromai (talk) 17:01, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
  • comment In Modern Greek, kratos means "state, sovereign country". Dimadick (talk) 13:59, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

@Dimadick: I do not know exactly when it acquired that meaning, but it definitely had it by late antiquity, since I know the word is used in that sense in the Oxyrhynchus Hymn, written in the third or fourth century AD, where at least one translation I read renders the word as "empire." My guess is that the modern meaning probably arose out of the fact that empires wield "power." --Katolophyromai (talk) 14:11, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

Not that surprising. The Greek word for emperor is "Autokrator", for empress "autokrateira", and for empire "autokratoria". All derive from the term "kratos". Dimadick (talk) 14:21, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

• • Do we know that the GOW character was named after the mythological diety? From this writeup, it does not appear that the two have much in common. Krat and os are both common Greek word particles. More than one person could have come up with the idea of putting the two together. The mythology article is getting 600 hits a day. That's hard to explain in terms of Kratos' mythological notability. I assume that most of that readership represents misdirected GOW fans. Nine Zulu queens (talk) 05:56, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
    • While unclear, being the personification of strength and the Greek concept of might and power is pretty good evidence that the name was no coincidence, as Kratos's defining characteristic is his strength in combat._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 21:51, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support - a namesake should always be primary. Being named after something else is proof of long-term significance. A video game character is of fleeting significance. -- Netoholic @ 03:36, 12 April 2018 (UTC)
• Relisting comment. To this point the numbers lean in favor of moving these pages, but I am uncomfortable moving the mythology article to the base title over a GA that also gets considerably more page views. Given the counterargument presented by the "support" argument that the mythology article may be a permastub, relisting. Of course, another closer can proceed with a close if he or she disagrees. Dekimasuよ! 10:47, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support. Deities should nearly always be primary versus their namesakes, IMO, and while we may grudgingly have to deal with exceptions for the major planets, moons, and chemical elements, a video game character shouldn't be primary over the deity he's named after (and in my opinion that's clearly the case). In a few years the video game may be all but forgotten, but the god won't be. P Aculeius (talk) 12:48, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support, per P Aculeius, see also WP:RECENTISM. Paul August ☎ 13:44, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
• Comment. WP:RECENTISM enjoins us to "be aware of balance and historical perspective." It is about appropriate emphasis in the way an article is written, not about article titles or primary topics.
  Those who support this move assume that this obscure deity is the root that gave us the video game character, democracy, oligarch, and so forth. According to Wikitionary, the Greek word is derived from Proto-Indo-European *kret-, not from the deity. You wouldn't trace the concept of superness back to Superman. Nine Zulu queens (talk) 07:31, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

@Nine Zulu queens: You seem to be confused; the name Kratos is the word kratos. The have the same etymology, the same history, and the same meaning. The name and the word are the same. The god Kratos is the personification of the word. This is like if someone today were to talk about the goddess Truth reading men's hearts or the goddess Virtue judging men's souls. Kratos is the divine personification of "power" or "strength." --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:48, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Do you realize that this article is specifically about the god, not the general concept of kratía/power? Nine Zulu queens (talk) 09:23, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

@Nine Zulu queens: Yes. I realize that. I am saying that, if we make it the primary topic, we can expand it to include the concept. --Katolophyromai (talk) 11:06, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

• Oppose. In no way is the Greek figure the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Even beyond the fact that it has a minority of page views, as Katolophyromai, the mythical figure is extremely minor in Greek literature. It's possible the article could be expanded to include material on the Greek concept of authority, but that would essentially be a different article, and at any rate, it hasn't happened yet. Given what we actually have, this is not the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC.--Cúchullain ^t/c 14:55, 19 April 2018 (UTC)
• Oppose. Pretty much the same reasons as the other opposes. This Kratos had such a minor role in Greek mythology. The article itself is only a stub and of low importance. Is there really enough information on this Kratos to expand it further? The video game character is a GA with much more readily available information. And like linked by Nine Zulu queens, the video game character obviously has many more visitors than this minor mythological character. There's also no evidence that the video game character was based on the mythological character. If anything, the developers chose the name for what it meant, not for who the mythological character was. There's only been one comparison of the two that I'm aware of, and that was during a documentary about the video game series where it was mentioned how this Kratos had aided in imprisoning Prometheus, where the video game character freed him. --JDC808 ♫ 05:32, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support This is an interesting test case for recentism in titles. A super minor subject from classical mythology vs. a video game. We can be nearly 100% sure that the god will be the primary topic in a hundred years from now. (Or at least "more primary" than the video game.) But if a subject is *that* much more popular now – and to be fair for a period of several years, this is not a 3 month flash in the pan – then it is hard to support the game character not being primary. At least for now. I was going to !vote that way but 9ZQ's relevant page views link makes me think otherwise; if the timeless topic is still typically getting 1/2 the page views maybe it isn't so lopsided. ErikHaugen (talk | contribs) 16:23, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
• Comment By the way the argument that the current article is "only a stub", is irrelevant, as it is the topic that is being considered here, not the current article about the topic. Paul August ☎ 16:53, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

• I believe the argument is that this is the only real information there is on the topic–and that therefore it is a permastub, not simply that it is currently a stub. Dekimasuよ! 16:23, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

• Oppose. Page view statistics win out here, this Kratos is clearly not the primary topic, as he's an incredibly obscure figure, so disambig page is the correct call (the current status quo). As a side comment, for that it's not very relevant, but the God of War character is NOT "obviously based on this mythological individual"; it's a random Greek-sounding name they applied to their own made-up character. Unless you think that Dante (Devil May Cry) is actually based on a certain Italian poet... SnowFire (talk) 20:24, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Kratos (mythology)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: JDC808 (talk · contribs) 03:53, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

I will begin this review within the next day. --JDC808 ♫ 03:53, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

Done a little bit of copy-editing. Probably more of that to come with comments as well. --JDC808 ♫ 22:29, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

Lead

• I'd suggest removing this sentence and let the second paragraph speak to this: "who is best known for his appearance at the beginning of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound."

@JDC808: Done. --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:02, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

• I feel like this sentence is not completely necessary for the lead: "Kratos is only listed as one of these children and Hesiod gives no additional personal information about him."

Removed. --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:02, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

• Suggested rewrite for this rather long sentence:
  • "Kratos and his sister Bia make a brief appearance in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, where in the opening scene, acting as agents of Zeus, they lead their captive, the Titan Prometheus on stage, and compel Hephaestus, the mild-mannered god of blacksmiths, to chain Prometheus to a rock as punishment for his theft of fire."
  • Suggested rewrite: "His most well-known appearance is in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, where Kratos and his sister Bia appear in the opening scene as agents of Zeus. They lead the captive Titan Prometheus and compel the smith god Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to a rock as punishment for his theft of fire."

I rewrote sentence and broke it up, but not exactly the way you suggested. --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:02, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

Ancient Greek literature and art

• Check for the correct tense in the first couple of sentences under Prometheus Bound.

I believe the tense is correct. It is using the literary present tense because it is describing the script of an extant work of drama. --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:02, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

In modern culture

• The paragraph about the video game character, that Kratos frees Prometheus in the game God of War II. I think that would be an interesting thing to include since the mythological Kratos's most well-known appearance is his role in binding Prometheus. There was actually a documentary included with God of War III where professional historians talked about how the games related to the mythology, and that was one of the things mentioned. This paragraph also makes mention that "his strongest influence is the hero Heracles". In the games, Heracles (though they use Hercules) is his half-brother. Perhaps that quoted part could be expanded to say "his strongest influence is the hero Heracles (Roman Hercules), who is later revealed to be the character's half-brother." --JDC808 ♫ 04:04, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

The statement about his "strongest influence" being Heracles is from the classicist Sylwia Chmielewski, who argues that the video game character Kratos is essentially a darker, more violent, anti-hero version of Heracles. She also mentions in the same paragraph that many of the heroes that Kratos shows inspiration from also appear in the game and, ironically, he "encounters and fights many of them." I did not bother including that here, though, because I did not think it was important or relevant enough to the mythological Kratos. She does not mention anything about Heracles being Kratos's half brother in the game, though, so I would need a source for that if I were going to include it. I do not think it is really relevant in this article, though. I have tried to limit information about the video game character to just the parts that were directly relevant or similar to the mythological figure, since we already have a lengthy article about him and most of it is not really directly pertinent. I obviously made sure to mention Dunstan Lowe's guess regarding why the mythological figure and the video game character have the same name. I also mentioned the other mythological figures that influenced the video game character to make it clear that other mythical figures actually played a much stronger role in shaping the character's actions. I also chose to mention the video game character's violent nature, since the main, defining aspects of the mythological figure's personality as he is portrayed in Prometheus Bound are his violence and brutality.

The freeing of Prometheus is a task that Greek mythology and works based on it usually attribute to Heracles; its attribution to Kratos in the video game would certainly be something worth mentioning, since it is the exact opposite of what the mythological Kratos does in Prometheus Bound. Unfortunately, none of my sources mention that Kratos frees Heracles in the game, nor do they make any remarks about the irony of this fact. Personally, I find the situation interesting, but I suspect it is entirely coincidental, since there is currently no evidence that the makers of the game were aware of the mythological Kratos and the freeing of Prometheus is one of Heracles's many famous heroic deeds. I do not have access to the documentary you mention, nor would I know how to cite it if I did. Other ironic or interesting things we could possibly mention about the relationship between the mythological and video game Kratoi (that would be the Greek plural of Kratos) if we could find sources supporting them:

1. In Prometheus Bound Kratos is loyal to Zeus; whereas, according to this (which I am assuming you wrote), in the video game, he hates Zeus and eventually kills him.
2. In Prometheus Bound Kratos bullies Hephaestus into binding Prometheus; according to this, it sounds as though, in the video game, he bullies Hephaestus into making him a weapon and then kills him with it, which, if you think about it, is an interesting similarity, even though, like the Prometheus aspect, it is probably also merely coincidental.

I do not have sources for either of these comparisons, though, and I do not think either of them are really necessary, but they might be interesting to mention if there are any sources out there that make these comparisons. I doubt there are. --Katolophyromai (talk) 08:02, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

I can check around for sources. I do have that documentary I previously mentioned. I will have to rewatch it though to get an exact quote, as well as a few other things that would be required of the reference (which I'll put the full reference here and format it so that you can just copy/paste it into the article). Sources for the other stuff should be available on the video game articles (God of War II and God of War III specifically), which I could dig through if you want to include them. --JDC808 ♫ 01:05, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: If you can provide the citation to the documentary that would be excellent. As for the other comparisons I made above, I think the article is fine without them; those would just be something extra that might be interesting to add if we had sources making direct comparisons on those points. I am not aware of any, however, and the sources in the other articles do not seem to make direct comparisons with the mythological Kratos, so we cannot use them here. As I said above, this article is about the mythological figure and I think I have pretty much covered everything there is to cover on that front. --Katolophyromai (talk) 04:20, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

That's fine. I'll try to rewatch that documentary tonight, or sometime this weekend. I'll also do another read over of the article and check a couple of other things, after which, this article should be good to go. --JDC808 ♫ 20:31, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: It has been eight days since you last responded here. I thought I would ping you to remind you that you still have not finished this review. Technically, a review is not supposed to go more than seven days without a response. If you think the article is ready, go ahead and pass it. If not, you should offer more suggestions for improvements that you think need to be made before the article can be promoted to Good Article status. You can also put the review on hold if you need to. --Katolophyromai (talk) 02:02, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, I did not forget, this week just got very busy (on a side note, when you first asked me about reviewing, I did mention that this may be a slower review process due to my schedule). I will have more comments posted before I head to bed tonight. --JDC808 ♫ 03:00, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Below is the transcript from the documentary, God of War: Unearthing the Legend (2010). This is all of the dialog as it relates to the binding of Prometheus, and a little comparison between the mythological character and the video game character.

• Peter Weller (host), 00:35:33 - "From the fury of Typhon, Kratos then encounters one of Greek mythology's most tormented beings."

• Zoran Iovanovici (Cal State University Long Beach), 00:35:53 - "Prometheus was the Titan who was seen as the champion of humanity. He was always looking to help humans and develop their civilization. Zeus, of course, on the other hand, was typically annoyed with humans and he was constantly bickering with Prometheus."

• Susan Lape (University of Southern California), 00:36:08 - "At one point, he stole fire so that human beings would have fire to cook food. He concealed it in a fennel-stalk and gave it to humans. Unfortunately, after he did that, the king of the gods got angry, Zeus, and decided to punish him."

• Alex Purves (University of California, Los Angeles), 00:36:24 - "And so in punishment, this Zeus drives a great column through Prometheus and has a bird come and pick out his liver everyday, and at the end of the day, the liver will grow back and this bird will come back. So Prometheus is kept in eternal punishment."

• Alex Purves (University of California, Los Angeles), 00:36:46 - "In scenes in Greek tragedy that we have of the binding of Prometheus, we see two henchman of Zeus come to bind Prometheus, and they are called Kratos and Bia, two words in Greek that mean strength or force or violence."

• Zoran Iovanovici (Cal State University Long Beach), 00:37:00 - "Ironically, in classical Greek texts, one of Zeus's minions that chains Prometheus is named Kratos, where in the game [God of War II], we see the character Kratos freeing Prometheus from his endless punishment."

• Dr. John Madden (University of Montana), 00:37:18 - "At the beginning of the war of the gods and Titans, Kratos does the will of Zeus. He's simply a flunky of Zeus. He has no personality of his own. He can't see anything except for Zeus's perspective. He's just a thug who enforces Zeus's will."

• Stig Asmussen (Game Director, God of War III), 00:37:37 - "Of course our Kratos isn't like that, but he is a pawn, and a lot of times, when you're in a creative environment, you have things that we call happy mistakes, and I think that might be one of them."

• Stig Asmussen (Game Director, God of War III), 00:37:48 - "Kratos the character was completely fleshed out. The story was written and we hadn't decided on a name yet. So, that was one of the things that came very late. I remember a time when we had a vote on the team and there was like five different options, and like, what name do you like the best, and those were presented to the team. They were presented to marketing and then it ended up becoming Kratos."

To cite the documentary, you can copy/paste this (but without the nowiki-code part and replace that with the normal <ref>). The quote field is to quote any of the above (if you don't, then leave blank or delete the field).

{{cite AV media |people= Quinio, Charles (director); [[Peter Weller|Weller, Peter]] (host); Iovanovici, Zoran; Lape, Susan; Purves, Alex; Madden, John; [[Stig Asmussen|Asmussen, Stig]] |date= 2010 |title= God of War: Unearthing the Legend |medium= Documentary |language= English |time= 00:35:33 |publisher= [[SCE Santa Monica Studio]] |quote= }}

--JDC808 ♫ 06:36, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: Thank you so much! This actually tells me a lot and it confirms that the names were indeed a coincidence, which is what Lowe already suspected. I have added the documentary to the bibliography and added information from it to the last paragraph of the "In modern culture" section. --Katolophyromai (talk) 13:59, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

No problem, and looks good. However, this sentence is rather long and could probably be split into two sentences (with some reworking):

• "The video game character Kratos was given his name at a late stage in his development, after the character had already been fleshed out, from the same Greek word meaning "Strength", of which the mythological figure Kratos is the personification, without his creators being aware of the actual mythological god named Kratos appearing in Prometheus Bound."

• Possible rewrite: "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. Unaware of the actual mythological god named Kratos appearing in Prometheus Bound, the creators coincidentally chose Kratos, the same Greek word meaning "Strength", of which the mythological figure Kratos is the personification." --JDC808 ♫ 18:40, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: I have done it exactly as you have requested. Thank you very much for the suggestion. Do you have anything else? --Katolophyromai (talk) 20:19, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Gonna read over the article one more time to make sure there's nothing else. --JDC808 ♫ 20:51, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

One lingering question. I've been thinking about this since I started this review, but wasn't sure if it was important enough, but then I thought if you decide to take this to FA later on, it may be brought up there. Is Theogony the only instance where his name is spelled with a C instead of a K? --JDC808 ♫ 21:01, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: Sorry. I should have explained: Kratos's name in Greek is Κράτος. There are different ways in which Greek names can be Latinized. Traditionally, the Greek letter κ has always been transliterated into Latin characters as c and the ending ος has always been Latinized as us, but, in more recent times, it has become increasingly more common to transliterate κ as k and ος as os, because those are the more direct equivalents. The quotation from Hesiod given here is taken from Hugh G. Evelyn-White's 1914 translation, which renders Κράτος as Cratos because that is a more traditional transliteration. Newer sources and translations, however, all render the name as Kratos. The answer to your question, then, is not that Hesiod himself spelled the name Cratus, but rather that the translator of that particular quotation chose to render the name in English using that spelling. --Katolophyromai (talk) 21:18, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Okay. Maybe perhaps a note after the quotation that explains the translation to Cratos instead of Kratos? Doesn't have to be anything too long, just enough to clarify why it's different. Or even possibly just adding it to the note that's in the lead after Cratos. --JDC808 ♫ 21:29, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

The current note says: Ancient Greek: Κράτος Kratos, literally "Power"[1][2] or "Strength"[3]. Perhaps change it to: Ancient Greek: Κράτος, traditionally translated to Cratos, more commonly translated to Kratos, literally means "Power"[1][2] or "Strength"[3] --JDC808 ♫ 21:35, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: Done. --Katolophyromai (talk) 22:29, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Kratos, as an Embodiment, is actually considered a Demigod, not a God, and many sources cite him as the Embodiment of Strength and Demigod of Cruelty. In any event, Kratos is not considered to be any sort of good or benevolent deity. As one of Ares Dark Generals/Demigods, he was actually revered by the people of Sparta for the many acts of inhuman cruelty he performed in life, aligning with their beliefs that only cruelty and forcing their children to survive and without anything whatsoever other than their own teeth and hands to help them survive to return back to Sparta before they were permitted to become citizens of Sparta.

Frankly, while I can see the possibility of the Demigod of Cruelty wanting the power of Ares, from the characteristics presented in most mythology from different parts of ancient Greece, I have to say I was always shocked that anyone would want to present Kratos as any sort of "hero" or "benevolent figure". Frankly, I'd expect him to become an even more cruel, merciless and murderous God of War if he overthrew Ares.

As for the Cratos vs Kratos debate, it's exactly the same as the Chronos vs Cronos debate. None of them are wrong, or completely correct because the Ancient Greek Alphabet doesn't conform with the Arabic Alphabet English uses. There are missing letter/letter sounds as well as specific letter sounds represented by a single character where the English Language defines those sounds as combinations of letter.

My belief is that if one adheres to the belief that the King of the Titans is spelled "Cronos", then it follows that calling the Demigod of Cruelty "Cratos" would be in line with that.

In other writings, I have seen his name spelled as "Kratos" in his incarnation as Demigod of Cruelty, and "Cratos" as the Embodiment of Strength. None of those writings are official Greek Mythology, though. Darkeforce (talk) 11:29, 7 July 2022 (UTC)

Verdict

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

It was very interesting learning more about the mythological Kratos, as before you expanded this article, I, and probably like many others, only knew about his role in binding Prometheus and that was it. Great job! --JDC808 ♫ 04:32, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

@JDC808: Thank you so much for taking the time to review this article in spite of your busy schedule. I really appreciate it. I also really appreciate you providing the transcript of the relevant part of that documentary; that was also very helpful. --Katolophyromai (talk) 04:56, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

You're welcome The only annoyance going back to the documentary was that there was no closed-captions, so I had to transpose it myself (so pausing and rewinding to make sure I heard everything, then replaying it through). Other than that, it was interesting to go back and really listen to what was being said throughout that particular section. I'm actually probably going to add some of it to the appropriate section on the video game character's article. --JDC808 ♫ 06:44, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Spelling of his name

Why Cratos? I've always seen it spelled as Kratos, and even the article says Kratos is more accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.26.178 (talk • contribs) 04:41, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it can either be spelled Kratos or Cratus. Cratos is an unacceptable mish-mash of Greek and Latin spelling conventions. Ifnkovhg 11:09, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

This. Kratos is the Greek transliteration, Cratus the Latinised version. Cratos is pure nonsense. --Shoemoney2night (talk) 05:54, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

And renamed. I've also removed some unsourced claims about Kratos. --06:07, 6 February 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shoemoney2night (talk • contribs)

I'm pretty sure I've heard of Kratos being spelled "Cratos" 82.17.221.173 (talk) 01:01, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Cratos (names)

Making a new thread so we don't necro the other one. Here's clear evidence of the name Cratus (and Kratos) being used in addition to Cratos: [1] AidenTEM (talk) 02:30, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for correcting me I was mistaken and forgot to double check Trainsareawesome (talk) 02:51, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Dispute on a minor change

Hello to all. I made a minor change on this article about Kratos' brother Zelus, instead of Glory to Zeal. I see it is getting undone all the time. In greek, Zelus literally means zeal and I also take the analogous article in wikipedia, so it seems inconsistent, to me at least, when two articles have different translations for the very same name. I would like another opinion. I thank you in advance! Alkiviadis (talk) 12:24, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

@Alkiviadis: as I wrote on my talk page (User talk:Paul August#Kratos article edit revert): In ancient Greek ζῆλος, in addition to meaning fervor or zeal, can also mean pride, honor, or glory (see LSJ). In particular, as the corresponding note in the text explains, the translations being use there are Gantz's. Gantz's translation are perfectly fine and there is no need to change them. But even if we were going to use a different set of translations, they would need to be sourced, and we would also have to change what the note says about whose translations we are using. Paul August ☎ 12:46, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

So you choose to translate it τo glory instead of zeal. It makes absolutely no sense. The name is Ζῆλος (Zelus) and also the noun is ζῆλος (zeal), which is translated in english with the word zeal. Zelus literally means zeal, while cleos means glory. Just see how close are the words Zelus and zeal. In greek the name and the noun are exactly the same, so no confusion there. There is no need for you to insist just cause you read it in a lexicon from the 19th century. My reference is the wikipedia article for Zelus. Seriously do a google translation for ΖΗΛΟΣ and tell me what it says. Alkiviadis (talk) 13:30, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

It is Gantz, in his book Early Greek Myth, who chooses to translate the name as "glory" instead of "zeal", not us editors. Sources don't appear to be particularly consistent on this matter (others give "emulation" or "zeal"), but there is nothing wrong with using the translation given by Gantz, and we note that we do so, so I don't really see any issue. – Michael Aurel (talk) 13:39, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Also, note that other Wikipedia articles and Google translate do not meet Wikipedia's definition of reliable sources. The appropriate sources to use here are scholarly secondary sources. – Michael Aurel (talk) 13:45, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

It is funny both of you being so zealous! So what you are saying is that Gantz said that zeal means glory in his book or did he simply say that Zelus was the personification of zeal... and maybe glory in archaic age? Also, just cause you are saying that he said so, doesn't make it reliable either. Can you provide a photo of what he wrote? If google translate is not reliable to you then you may open any english-greek dictionary and translate it for yourself what ζήλος means. But since you need a reference by a book, I will provide you the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith Edition by Tufts University. Just don't be stubborn guys or get the matter to arbitration. Alkiviadis (talk) 14:58, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Gantz, pp. 25–6 says the following: The second son, Pallas, marries his cousin Styx (daughter of Okeanos and Tethys); their children are Zelos (Glory), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Power), and Bia (Force) (Th 383-85). Smith can sometimes be an alright source, though he was writing in the 19th century, and more recent scholarship is generally preferable (also, what Smith says is that Zelus is "the personification of zeal or strife", which isn't necessarily the same). There are a number of different translations given by different scholars, it happens that Gantz was the one chosen here, and he is a perfectly good source, so I don't really see that there is a problem. Isn't it fine to simply leave it as it is? – Michael Aurel (talk) 15:24, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

@Alkiviadis: As I tried to explain to you on my talk page, no one is disputing that ζῆλος can be translated 'zeal', but, by policy (see WP:VERIFY ), any translation given must be sourced. Besides Gantz's 'Glory', other translators of that Hesiodic passage, translate Zelus as 'Envy' (Caldwell), 'Aspiration' (West), 'Rivalry' (Most), Hard ('Emulation', 'Glory'). Paul August ☎ 14:48, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

To me it is crystal clear what Ζῆλος means. All the words that you provide are derivatives from the word ζῆλος which is zeal. You choose for some unkonwn to me reason to insist in choosing the x-th translation of Zelus name, when it is zeal. Maybe zeal means something different in english or it lost its original meaning. I suspect that in english it may have a negative sort of essence while in greek it does not. In analogy, I could do the same for the user name that you use, August, it means respected and impressive but I could also insist that it means the 8th month of the year. Do you see my point? Alkiviadis (talk) 15:10, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

I'm not insisting that Zelus means 'Glory'. I'm insisting that whatever translation is chosen, it must come from some published reliable source. Paul August ☎ 17:52, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Yes indeed. Editors may sometimes find it helpful to consider the original but we have to rely on published reliable sources for our translations, not on what this or that editor claims for their ability to understand ancient Greek and translate it into good English.

Which said, even I can recognise that translating

ζῆλος δ᾽ ἀνθρώποισιν ὀιζυροῖσιν ἅπασι

δυσκέλαδος κακόχαρτος ὁμαρτήσει, στυγερώπης.HesiodEvelyn-White translation

to begin "Zeal ..." would be absurd. NebY (talk) 18:26, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Help with change

I was reading the opening paragraph for this article, and noticed kratos was listed as being most well known from his role in Prometheus bound. I think we can agree that his role as the protagonist in God of War is much more well known nowadays, but owing to reasons (like being a mobile phone editor) I'd rather not explain, I cannot cite or even find sources. Could someone else find a relevant source and do the edit for me? Thanks! MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 18:12, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

More: I'm pretty certain he is more well known from GoW, but I'm not completely certain, so if it doesn't turn out to be true, that's my bad. MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 18:14, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

This article is about the figure from Greek mythology. The GoW character is mentioned in the modern culture section. Di (they-them) (talk) 00:49, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

@Di (they-them) I didn't say it wasn't mentioned there. Our goal is to provide the most accurate information possible, with reliable sources to back it up. If the information isn't as accurate as it can be, shouldn't we be trying to replace it? MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 16:25, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

The exact quote in the article is "Kratos and his sister Bia are best known for their appearance in the opening scene of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound." if it's factually incorrect, (which I'm pretty certain it is) why wouldn't we change it? This specific phrase in the article has literally nothing to do with Greek mythology in particular, and I would argue it would still need to be replaced if he were best known for being put on a cooking show, or WWE, or whatever it is. I would also argue the phrase lends itself to being moved to the "in popular culture section," instead of where it currently lies. Maybe it's just me tho. MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 16:34, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

P.S. Obviously the phrase also includes kratos' sister Bia, who's significance in GoW I am unsure of, but we could figure something out I'm sure MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 16:36, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Prometheus Bound is where Kratos is most well known from, that's abundantly clear from the article. The God of War character is entirely different from the Greek god, as the article states; their names being the same is a coincidence. Kratos from God of War is a fictional character that happens to have the same name as the Greek god, but is not based on him. Di (they-them) (talk) 16:37, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

@Di (they-them) Oh, my bad, I don't know where I got the misconception from, sorry for wasting both our time. MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 16:40, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

@Di (they-them) None of this is to say that you're wrong tho. If we have a difference of opinion and I cannot convince you of mine, then I will defer to what you choose to do, regardless of my true thoughts. sorry for posting so many messages, my brain just often doesn't fully complete a thought in just one message. MonkeyEditsTM (talk) 16:39, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Potestas

@Di (they-them): While Hyginus lists "Potestas" among the offspring of Pallas and Styx, and Grant translates this figure as "Power", this isn't enough to call Potestas the "Roman equivalent" of Kratos in the infobox. Even though it might be reasonable to assume that when Hyginus writes "Potestas" he is referring to Kratos (or the "Roman equivalent" of Kratos), we can't actually make this assumption without a secondary source. – Michael Aurel (talk) 03:46, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, I understand. Di (they-them) (talk), Di (they-them) (talk) 05:23, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Ok, cheers. I thought it was probably useful to have a section here addressing this since I vaguely remember it being added in the past (likely not by you). – Michael Aurel (talk) 05:39, 14 November 2024 (UTC)