Characters / God of War Series – Greek Gods

God of War characters index
Protagonists: Kratos | Atreus
Greek Era: Gods (Zeus) | Titans | Mythology's Heroes | Other Beings | Normal Humans | Characters from Comics
Norse Era: Gods (Odin | Thor | Mimir | Baldur | Heimdall | Freya) | Jotnar | Other Characters (Sindri and Brok) | Monsters

The Greek Gods are a race of powerful, immortal beings who control the forces of nature and magic and who rule over large portions of the Earth, including animals and mortals. The Olympian gods had a king, Zeus, who reigned over both man and god from his divine throne on Mount Olympus. They served as minor protagonists in the first game, helping Kratos with his quest to kill Ares; however, as the series progressed, they turned into the series' main antagonists.

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In General

• Adaptational Villainy: While most of the Greek Gods are rather terrible people by today's standard, this series portrays them as far more villainous than in the original myths. Being infected by the evils of Pandora's Box may have something to do with that.
• Adaptational Wimp: The gods of the Classical Mythology, both Titan and Olympian, simply cannot die, period, but in the games, they can and mostly do.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: A handful of the ones that don't spend their final moments defiantly mocking the guy that beat the stuffing out of them try to convince Kratos to spare them. Keyword being try in the most over-the-top way possible.
• Art Evolution: All of them save Athena and Ares are drastically different-looking from the original game to sequels.
• Asshole Victim: Kratos may be a Villain Protagonist by the time of III, but it's hard to feel sorry for their gruesome deaths at his hands on account of what bastards they are. By the time of the Norse Era, this seems to be a common view of the Olympians, as Mimir believes that the entire pantheon had it coming.
• Bad Boss: Despite demanding worship and obedience from the people of Greece, they don't really care about most people and treat them as expendable pawns.
• Create Your Own Villain: Make no mistake, Kratos is largely responsible for a lot of the terrible events taking place throughout the original Greek series, but he became a Villain Protagonist in II and III largely because of the gods' machinations utterly ruining his life, and the lives of those he loves. Like Kratos, however, none of the gods ever admit to their own hand in how these events have played out, despite calling out Kratos for his own refusal to own up to his own failures.
• Death of the Old Gods: The deicidal mission of Kratos can be seen as a catalyst for the age of men and Christianity. In God of War II Kratos visits the Temple of the Fates where it is possible to notice the presence of three murals that describe past and future events. The first of them describes the war between gods and titans, the second depicts a lonely man surrounded by chaos (resembling the ending of III') while the last mural shows three men walking towards a star in the sky, alluding the journey of the Three Wise Men towards the birth of Jesus Christ guided by the Star of Bethlehem. It is possible that this last prophecy will be fullfilled in the years to come. At the end of his journey Kratos have annihilated most of the greek pantheon, while the deities who survived his rampage likely vanished in the ensuing chaos.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Some of the greek gods or goddesses disintegrate in a devastating expolosion when they are killed. Also, when a god ceases to exist, a catastrophic event based on what the deity personified occurs. For example the death of Poseidon caused the earth to be flooded by the oceans.
• Embodiment of Vice: After Kratos opens Pandora's Box in the first game, each of the gods became infected with a particular evil housed within it.
  • Zeus with Fear. He became paranoid towards Kratos and his supposed connection to a prophecy that would end in his death, hence why he had his godhood rescinded at the beginning of II.
  • Poseidon is Wrath. His already bad temper was escalated, becoming abusive to his enslaved lover, and goes after Kratos for destroying Atlantis.
  • Hades is Hatred. He fosters a profound grudge against Kratos for killing Athena, Poseidon and Persephone.
  • Hermes is Pride. He mocks Kratos for his brutality while flaunting his own speed.
  • Helios is Vanity and Deceit. He calls Hephaestus a freak and tries tricking Kratos into fatal traps multiple times.
  • Hera is Gluttony and Sloth. Has become The Alcoholic and has become apathetic to the slaughter of her family.
  • Hercules is Envy. He resents Kratos' fame and admiration despite both of them undergoing similar paths of penance before trying to kill Kratos to take his War God title for himself.
  • Aphrodite is Lust and Vanity. She spends all of her time satisfying her bottomless libido with her handmaidens and Kratos while calling her husband Hephaestus "worthless."
  • Hephaestus is Misery. He had hit the Despair Event Horizon after everything Zeus did to him in the first two games.
  • Athena is Greed. She tries taking the power of Hope from Kratos, intending on becoming the sole Goddess of the world now that the rest of Olympus has fallen.
• Evil Versus Evil: On one hand, Kratos is an incredibly destructive and vindictive person, putting his woes ahead of everyone else and even the entire world just to get revenge on a single person. On the other however, the Olympian Gods are a bunch of smug, arrogant and manipulative beings who exert a cruel, iron fist on whatever power they have and view humanity as entertainment at best. Both sides bring suffering, just from different angles.
• Fisher King: In III, every time Kratos kills one of them, their death causes something catastrophic to happen to one of their dominions. Poseidon's death causes the sea to rage out of control and flood Greece, Helios's death causes dark storm clouds to block out the sun, Hera's death causes all the plants to die, etc. This is why most of the gods protect Zeus so fervently, as if Zeus were to die, literally everything else would, too. Interestingly, this only seems to apply to their homeland, as Midgard/Scandanavia seems to be perfectly fine a hundred years after the fall of Olympus, which saw Greece transformed into an unrecognizable apocalyptic wasteland due to the mass murder of the Greek Pantheon. This may be a Retcon of sorts, since there was no real indication that the universe had a Crossover Cosmology before the 2018 game, so now it appears that different pantheons have stewardship over their own parts of the world.
• Flaming Hair: Ares. Hermes had this in his original design, but his appearance was tweaked between II and III to give him hair made of pure light.
• Hate Plague: They are revealed in III to be victims of this; when Pandora's Box was opened at the climax of the first game, the metaphysical evil contained within spread to infect the pantheon with paranoia and madness, transforming them from aloof Reasonable Authority Figures to the Jerkass Gods seen in the rest of the series.
• Hero Antagonist: Of the Nominal Hero variant towards Kratos in God of War III. Yes, they are fighting to preserve the world from being destroyed by Kratos' actions, but that is mostly because their own positions of power are being threatened, rather than any real concern for the mortals occupying their realm.
• Hypocrite: The vast majority of the gods collectively look down on Kratos for his refusal to take responsibility for his actions, yet feel entitled enough to believe that any transgression they perform against Kratos had been entirely justified, and lack the capacity to realize that perhaps their constant toying with Kratos' life is a massive reason as to why he hates them, and eventually declares war on them.
• Jerkass Gods: Many of them. The comic is reveals that in order to see which one of them was better, they forced their chosen champions to take part in the quest for Ambrosia... by plaguing their home-lands with disease, famine and plague. Being infected by the evils of Pandora's Box certainly didn't help, but they weren't exactly decent beforehand.
• Large Ham: Some more than the others, but generally the pantheon speak with the grandiosity and eloquence you'd expect from deities.
• Minor Major Character: The Gods are one of the most important aspect in Greek Mythology, as they shape the God Of War universe, but since the game takes place in Kratos's point of view, most of them only appeared as either a Boss Battle or a Plot-Irrelevant Villain, such as Persephone and Thanatos. Only Zeus, Athena, Ares and Hephaestus play a major aspect in Kratos's story.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: With the exception of Ares, all Olympians obey Zeus regardless how they may feel about him, even by the time of III where most feel he had turned into a tyrant. They will fight to the death to keep him in power because his existence preserves balance in the world; as Poseidon puts it "the death of Olympus means the death of us all".
• Never My Fault: Notably, the gods repeatedly chastise Kratos' own selfish refusal to own up to his actions, yet never once admit to how their own actions have contributed to making Kratos' life such a living hell.
• Physical God: So much you could mistake them for super-powered humans rather than gods. While they can live forever, can't die of natural causes, or be killed mortals/mortal weapons, they can be slain by those wielding divine power/weapons.Apparently also the power of Hope, acquired by Kratos when he opened the Pandora Box, and released to humanity at the end of the third game, grants the ability to kill a god.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Much of their cruelty and malice towards Kratos is driven by their collective fear of him overthrowing and destroying the Pantheon. But that malice and cruelty, while partially fueled by Pandora's Box is also part of the reason why Kratos ended up destroying them in the first place. And if what the Norns from God of War Ragnarök have said is any indication, much of the problems of the Greek Pantheon would have been greatly mitigated, if not existed had they been willing to take any shred of responsibility of their poor choices, changed their behavior and not allowed themselves to regress to their worst natures and bad habits.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the first game, they were more like Reasonable Authority Figure(s), but they become more like Jerkass Gods in the sequels; this is justified since it's revealed in the third game that the Olympians became infected by the evils of Pandora's box after Kratos opened it, causing them to be consumed and turned into paranoid and arrogant tyrants by them.
• Truer to the Text: The deplorable behavior of the Greek pantheon in this series may come as a shock to viewers who grew up with cartoons like Class of the Titans and Disney's Hercules, but not to people familiar with Greek myth. While not quite as bad as they are here, the Greek gods in traditional folklore are still very selfish and unempathetic, especially towards mortals; acts of kindness that aren't towards family are mostly pragmatic, and even then there are cases where they'd throw family under the bus.
• Your Size May Vary: While they can change their forms and by extension their size at will, some vary from god to god as standards. Ares looks gigantic in the first game, and so does Hephaestus whenever Kratos meets up with him in III. Athena, Hera, Eos, and Aphrodite have an average female height, while Persephone looks unnaturally tall. Zeus can change himself into a giant whenever he pleases, but mainly chooses to stay at an average male height.
• You Don't Look Like You: While the Art Evolution in the series allowed for some refinement in the gods' designs, certain characters have such drastically different designs from their first incarnations that you'd be surprised they were the same character. Poseidon, for example, turns from a sagely old man in the first game to a more ruggedly masculine young man covered in tattoos. This does have an In-Universe justification as they all presumably have shapeshifting powers and can manifest in whatever form they choose.

Zeus

See his page for more info

Athena

"I see truths where I did not before..."

Voiced by: Carole Ruggier (English, God of War, God of War II, God of War (2018)), Erin Torpey (English, Chains of Olympus, God of War III, Ghost of Sparta)^{additional VAs}Alessandra Felletti (Italian), Olga Zubkova (Russian)

"Enough, Kratos! With every city you destroy, the wrath of Olympus grows. Soon, I will no longer be able to protect you."

The Goddess of Wisdom. Athena acts as one of Kratos's closest allies throughout the series, guiding him throughout his servitude to the Greek gods.

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• Adaptational Expansion: In the novelization of God of War, it shows more of her characterization as well as how large of a role she played in convincing the other gods to support Kratos in his journey to defeat Ares.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the novelization, Athena had every intention of fulfilling Kratos' expectations of erasing his nightmares, but was forbidden to do so by Zeus, who felt that Kratos should live with the memories of his sins.
• Ambition Is Evil: Her desire to become the sole god is what drives her manipulations of Kratos. Specifically, she was corrupted by the evil of Greed, her Wisdom twisted into believing she was destined to wield the power of Hope to become the sole God of Olympus. Given that she is the God of Wisdom, she may have a point. She knows War, but is also wise, so she knows how to counteract each half.
• Anti-Villain: Even after becoming an outright antagonist by the end of the third game, she's not exactly wrong that her ruling Greece would most likely be far better than either Zeus continuing his brutal dictatorship or Kratos (indirectly) murdering tens of thousands of innocent people just to satisfy a grudge.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Somehow she managed to become an astral projection of herself after her death in II, and in III becomes a guide to Kratos once again. Given Kratos's reaction to her turning up, again, in God of War (2018), he doesn't seem surprised that she managed it, just pissed off that she did.
• Batman Gambit: Athena's plan is for Kratos in God of War III to kill Zeus so she can take over as chief god. It fails because Athena failed to account for Pandora's effect on Kratos and underestimates how willing Kratos would be to defy her. Then averted - by the 2018 God of War game she is, apart from Kratos who would rather be doing absolutely anything else, the only Greek God remaining, so she won in the end!
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Zeus and Gaia in God of War III.
• Big Good: She was this in most of the God of War games until in the third game she was using Kratos to kill Zeus so she can become humanity’s new ruler.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Is revealed in III to be infected with the evil of Greed.
• Broken Pedestal: To Kratos, in Ghost of Sparta. Throughout Kratos' search for his brother, Athena repeatedly confronts him and attempts to steer him away from this path. Though Kratos is rightly angered at the fact that the gods themselves were responsible for kidnapping Deimos, he does seem to consider Athena's side of the story at some point—but all that goes away when he realizes that she directly helped kidnap Deimos (as in she was there) in the first place. And in the third game, she becomes just like the rest of the gods and ends up manipulating Kratos in his quest for revenge, just so she could take over Olympus. Maybe subverted, since it was probably the evil of Pandora's box that corrupted her. Luckily for Kratos, he manages to see through her ruse before it was too late.
• The Bus Came Back: An uncertain case. Centuries after she left Kratos to die in Greece at the end of God of War III, Athena reappears as he is returning to his home in Midgard to retrieve the Blades of Chaos to save his son Atreus. Though it definitely seems like Athena in terms of tone and presence, it is not made clear if this is actually Athena's spirit or simply a figment of Kratos' weary mind.
• The Cameo: It's safe to say that nobody was expecting the Goddess of Wisdom (if it even is her) to appear in the Nine Realms as Kratos is digging up a relic of his past, the Blades of Chaos.
• Deuteragonist: Serves as Kratos's guide in the first and third game.
• Didn't Think This Through: A recurring point is that whether as the messenger of Olympus and particularly Zeus's words or not, Athena has a horrible habit of botching everything involving Kratos and then being surprised when he turns out absolutely pissed off for it. In due part, her actions are a root cause of II even being allowed to happen, and her sacrifice at the end only allows Zeus to Exit Villain, Stage Left back to Olympus; even if the Titans were already on their way there, this only set off Kratos onto further pursuit, resulting in the utter shitstorm of III to occur. And her corrupted self by the end of the game either doesn't consider or have the faculties to consider that after all her betrayals of Kratos, he might not be inclined to hand Hope over to her whatsoever.
• Exact Words: When sending Kratos out to defeat Ares, she promises Kratos that the gods would forgive him all the sins of his past. This doesn't mean they'd take away the terrible nightmares plaguing him daily, as in her own words, no one could ever forget the terrible things he's done.
  Athena: Complete this final task, and the past that consumes you will be forgiven.
• Face–Heel Turn: Her goals post-mortem are decidedly more sinister and self-serving than they were before. Her goals pre-death are more sinister and self serving once you know the plot.
• Hannibal Lecture: Delivers a particularly biting one to Kratos in God of War (PS4).
  Athena: There's nowhere you can hide, Spartan. Put as much distance between you and the truth as you want, it changes nothing. Pretend to be everything you are not... teacher... husband... father... but there is one unavoidable truth you will never escape: You cannot change. You will always be a monster.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of II, Kratos attempts to plunge a killing blow with the Blade of Olympus into Zeus, but Athena throws herself between them both in an effort to let Zeus escape. Despite having been at odds with her throughout the whole game, Kratos is genuinely horrified at having accidentally stabbed her.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Her excuse on why she sided with the Gods against Kratos in the second game.
  • Also her excuse for letting Deimos be taken by Ares and tortured by Thanatos, as well as asking Kratos to leave Deimos as he was.
• It's All About Me: When Kratos chooses to commit suicide rather than give her the power of Hope from Pandora's Box, Athena throws a tantrum, screaming that the power was meant for her, indicating that of the Evils released from the Box, she was infected with Greed.
• Jerkass: She (possibly) returns in just a few scenes in the first Norse entry of the series, but her screentime largely consists of her smugly rubbing his past failures back in Kratos' face, treating his genuine effort to be a better man with contempt and disdain. Kratos pretty much tells her he doesn’t care about what she says anymore.
• Kick the Dog: In the first game of the Norse-era duology, Athena (likely still mad at Kratos for denying her the Power of Hope) returns to him and gives him a Hannibal Lecture about how he'll never change from being a monster. Kratos tells while that may be the case, he's not her monster anymore.
• Lady of War: Though we barely see her fight before Kratos accidentally kills her.
• Last of Her Kind: Apart from Kratos himself she is the only Olympian God confirmed to have survived the events of the third game... sort of.
• Manipulative Bitch: Due to her newfound lust for power, she manipulated Kratos' hatred for the Gods into killing them so that she could be the last God of Greece. Her plan ultimately failed, due to Kratos killing himself rather than letting her have the power of hope he had taken from Pandora's Box.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's ambiguous as to whether her appearance in the Norse entry was merely a manifestation of Kratos' fears regarding digging up his past or if it was truly her spirit still present and taunting him.
• Meta Twist: In Greek Mythology, Zeus ate his second wife Metis due to the fear that his male son would end up dethroning him. From that experience, Athena was born. Thanks to the Evil of Greed, she becomes a Manipulative Bastard and helps Kratos (already a son of Zeus) kill all Greek gods. In a roundbout way, she ends up dethroning Zeus, making Gaia's warning come true.
• Morality Pet: One of few people Kratos has any respect for. Turned out she was no different from any other Gods after being corrupted by the evils of Pandora's box.
• Ms. Fanservice: Completely averted, surprisingly. Despite having the looks of a fairly young and attractive woman, Athena always dresses modestly. Fitting for a goddess of both war and wisdom.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: In this case, Olympus; while she is easily one of the more heroic gods of her Pantheon, she's more than willing to help maintain Zeus' rule, as Zeus' mere existence is intrinsically tied to Olympus itself. Until the third game, that is; now, she's out for herself.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Befitting the goddess of wisdom, she keeps her hair in a bun.
• Promoted to Playable: In God of War II, it's possible to unlock a Bonus Costume of Athena after beating the game on the hardest difficulty.
• Taking the Bullet: Saves Zeus from being impaled, dying as a result.
• Unexplained Recovery: In II, she's stabbed by Kratos in a blow meant for Zeus, and is killed because the blade used against her was, of all things, the Blade of Olympus. But she returns in III as a specter, and when pressed for an answer as to why or how, she remains vague. That she manages to reappear in the Nine Realms (if she isn't merely a figment of Kratos' mind) muddles it even further.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Kratos kills himself and foils her plan, she throws a brief tantrum before coldly remarking that Kratos had disappointed her and leaving him to die.
• The Voice: In the first game, Athena only speaks to Kratos through her statue. In all other games (sans Ascension), Athena is physically seen.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to her after her plans were foiled at the end of III. According to Cory Barlog, she hasn't been heard from for many years at the time of God of War (PS4) and her whereabouts are still unknown. She briefly appears as a (possible) hallucination to torment Kratos as he is retrieving the Blades of Chaos.

Ares

"You have no idea what a true monster is, Kratos!"

Voiced by: Steve Blum (English, God of War, Ascension), Fred Tatasciore (English, God of War III)^{additional VAs}Gianni Gaude (Italian)

"I have taught you many ways to kill a mortal, Kratos. Flesh that burns, bones that break. But to break a man's spirit is to truly destroy him."

The God of War himself. Ares was appealed to by Kratos and gave the young Spartan the power to fell his enemies in exchange for his servitude. However, he pulled a dirty trick on Kratos by making him kill his own family to shape him into the ultimate warrior. Kratos kills him in revenge and succeeds him as the new God of War.

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• Abusive Parents: As shown in Ascencion, Ares treated his son, Orkos, as a disappointment and not worth looking after when he finds out that Orkos was not fit to be the perfect warrior that Ares envisioned.
• Adaptational Badass: The real Ares in the mythology was something of a loser who was humiliated by mortals of all things, most notably in the Illiad where he was forced to flee from the battlefield by the Greek hero Diomedes. Here, he's a flame-wreathed world-conquering badass and Kratos literally needs to become a god himself in order to defeat him.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Ares was hardly a nice guy in the original myths, he never tried to take down Olympus and conquer the world. Another factor to consider is that he wasn't under the influence of the evils in Pandora's Box when he did the horrible things he did. Furthermore, the novelization significantly jacks up the number of his crimes.
• Antagonistic Offspring: He's a son of Zeus and the only one who is openly against the King of the Olympian Gods. Ares isn't exactly shy about his desire to overthrow his father and take over Olympus for himself and proudly proclaims his intentions just before his fight against Kratos. Of course, the Olympian Gods weren't fond of Ares and entrusted Kratos to kill him, seeing as the Ghost of Sparta already had a major score to settle with the god of war.
• Arachnid Appearance and Attire: Ares is depicted with spider-like legs protruding from his back.
• Arch-Enemy: Despite the fact that, unlike Zeus, Kratos only contends with Ares for one game, the original god of war has an indelible impact on Kratos, having tricked the Spartan into murdering his own family. Destroying Ares is Kratos' driving force in both Ascension and the original God of War, and Ares' actions left Kratos the rage-filled shell of a man he is throughout the rest of the series. Even in the Norse era, where Kratos' hatred for Zeus has cooled into regret for his act of patricide, his loathing of Ares remains; the one time he speaks of him, Kratos refers to Ares as "a cruel god" and bitterly describes Ares tricking him into killing his wife and daughter.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Can grow to this size, just like his father and uncle Hades.
• Ax-Crazy: Ares is a bloodthirsty maniac who revels in destruction and murder, and his status as a War God is just an excuse for him to justify himself being a warmonger who enjoys his actions too much. The novelization ramps this aspect up, with Ares indiscriminately destroying a forest on his way to Athens and killing animals and children with vicious glee.
• The Bad Guy Wins: As revealed in Ascension, he wanted to mold Kratos into the perfect warrior to take down Olympus and kill Zeus. It only happened after he himself died and was replaced, but by III, his plan works.
• Baritone of Strength: Steve Blum's trademark deep, gruff voice fits this formidable War God like a glove.
• Beard of Evil: Ares sports a huge, fiery beard, and is evil enough to trick people into killing their own families.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to make Kratos into a great warrior, the perfect one who would be able to take down Olympus. He succeeded.
• Big Bad: Of the first game. Ares is responsible for turning Kratos into the Ghost of Sparta and for tricking him into killing his family as part of his plan to make the Spartan into a great warrior and take over Olympus.
• Blood Knight: As the Greek pantheon's God of War, Ares' existence is based on war and conflict, so he unsurprisingly relishes in combat and bloodshed.
• Cain and Abel: Ares despises his sister Athena, laying waste to Athens to spite her. He also has such a relationship with Kratos, his half-brother.
• Combat Pragmatist: As befitting Olympus' God of War, he knows every possible way to fight and destroy one's opponents.
  Ares: I have taught you many ways to kill a mortal, Kratos; flesh that burns, bones that break. But to break a man's spirit... that is to truly destroy him!
• The Corrupter: Probably acted as this to the Furies, as a note by a scribe in their citadel notes that they were hard but fair before Ares met with them rather than the evil sadists they became afterwards.
• Create Your Own Hero: Ares made Kratos kill his own family, thus making him into an unstoppable, vengeful killing machine. All because he wanted to create a perfect warrior to help him take over Olympus. Both Ares and Kratos lampshaded this in the first game:
  Ares: That day... I was trying to make you a great warrior!
  Kratos: You succeeded.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ares delivers Kratos the news that he arranged to have him kill his own family so that Kratos could focus on becoming the perfect warrior, expecting him to accept it and continue his service. What happens instead is Kratos renouncing his oath to Ares and forming a grudge against Olympus that would eventually lead him to destroy the entire pantheon.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: He has a notable association with fire, with many of his attacks spewing flames and possessing Flaming Hair. He's also the most unabashedly evil of the Greek gods.
• Evil Is Petty: He has Kratos kill his own family, then gives him the illusory chance of saving them, and kills them again when Kratos succeeds purely to screw with the Ghost of Sparta.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Comes with the territory of being voiced by Steve Blum, whose signature gravelly baritone makes Ares sound every bit like the formidable War God he is.
• Final Boss: Ares serves as Kratos' final opponent in the first game.
• Fire Is Masculine: Ares is a War God who possesses the love of violence and bloodshed one would expect such a deity to have. He also has a full head of Flaming Hair.
• Flaming Hair: It makes him look even more strange and not-human.
• Flaming Sword: At this point, you must ask yourself if he's the god of fire rather than Hephaestus.
• God of Evil: He isn't actually this, but he's the closest because he was evil by choice and not because he was possessed by the evils of Pandora's box.
• Gone Horribly Right: Much of what he did was an attempt to shape Kratos into a mighty warrior. He succeeded, but he wound up meeting his end at Kratos' hands.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In Ascension, where even though he never physically appears besides the flashbacks and mentions, he's the one who orders the Furies to capture Kratos and the plot of Ascension centers around Kratos attempting to break his blood oath to Ares by killing the Furies.
• Green-Eyed Monster: We never see anything proving his claim that Zeus favors Athena, but Ares is still plenty envious of her nonetheless.
• Hated by All: Ares' own family hates him, helps Kratos to fight him, and, although Athena claims otherwise, none of them seem particularly upset after Kratos kills him. A subtle but very telling example of this is seen when Hades fights Kratos in the third game; Hades invokes Athena, Poseidon, and Persephone, all of whom Kratos has killed by this point, as reasons that he wants him dead, but makes no mention of Ares.
• Hate Sink: The most prominent one in the entire series. While the Greek and Norse pantheons Kratos upends are beyond flawed, the individual figures either had external curses thrust upon them, truly believed that what they were doing was for the good of their realm, or were victims of centuries of trauma and abuse. Ares, however, has nothing to fall back on. He was always a bloodthirsty, spiteful deity who poisoned any individuals he became involved with, all so he could eventually claim Olympus for himself, and no evil he enacts comes from anywhere but his selfish desires. To put it simply: Ares seems to be the only god Kratos, reformed and remorseful over his past actions, has no regrets killing.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he finally dies, courtesy of Kratos shoving his blade straight through his chest.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: While in Athens, he throws a pillar that impales Kratos, who was in the Temple Of Pandora deep in the Desert Of Lost Souls. Justified because he's a god.
• Irony: Ares's beard lacks a mustache, which have a history of being associated with military services^note  in many militaries around the world, full beards are considered improper or are just not allowed. Mustaches are accepted as long as they are neatly trimmed and well-groomed (they were even mandatory in certain countries while serving the military) . Lacking a mustache is seen by other cultures as a symbol of non-violence and pacifism, and anti-war protestors would either grow beards or shave only their mustaches as a rejection of militarism. Ironically, growing out a beard and shaving your mustache would however have been standard practice in the military of ancient Sparta.
• It's All About Me: At the end of the day, all Ares cares about is his ambitions to take over Olympus for himself. Everybody is either something to kill or a tool to be used for his own goals. For example, when overseeing Kratos cradling the remains of his wife and daughter, all Ares talks about is how he's becoming the perfect warrior and has impressed him, not even bothering to mention Lysandra and Calliope.
• Karmic Death: Ares' desire to mold Kratos into the perfect warrior was ultimately what led to his death. Ares himself seems to realize this in the last seconds of his life.
• Lack of Empathy: After Kratos accidentally killed his family, Ares immediately appeared to him and declared that with them gone, nothing was stopping Kratos from becoming an even greater warrior; that Kratos was utterly shattered from losing his wife and daughter didn't matter at all to Ares, who seemed to expect Kratos to be grateful for what happened. Even at the literal point of death, Ares still tries to defend his actions as being for Kratos' betterment, to no avail.
• Made of Iron: He isn't the god of war for nothing. His warriors in Ascension are Glass Cannons, but Ares is both strong and resilient; Kratos has access to powerful weapons, magic and was even empowered by Pandora's Box, but despite that Ares still takes a LOT of punishment before finally going down.
• Manipulative Bastard: He tricked Kratos into slaughtering his own family and planned to use him as a weapon to overthrow Olympus. Guess what? It works.
• Mind Rape: He pulled Kratos in this when he couldn't defeat him physically.
• Position of Literal Power: They don't call him the god of war for nothing. He kills Kratos with no effort whatsoever in the first game (for all the good that ever does), and puts up one hell of a fight at the end of the game.
• Posthumous Villain Victory: Ares' goal of overthrowing Zeus and bringing down Olympus comes to pass... at Kratos' hands long after the Spartan has killed Ares.
• Predecessor Villain: For the series following his death at the end of the first game. His actions, based around the desire to overthrow Olympus, ultimately drive Kratos down the paths he takes; Kratos' own flaws play a role, but Ares leaned on them as hard as he could and set every destructive thing in motion that happens in the series; including (unwittingly) the corruption of his fellow deities by the opening of Pandora's Box, which was done specifically to defeat Ares in the first place. There's a reason the series is called GOD OF WAR instead of being named after Kratos.
• The Resenter: He has quite the grudge against Athena, probably because he thinks she's daddy's favourite. Ironically, Zeus abandons her to die in the sequel to save his own skin when Kratos has him dead to rights.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: More orange-ish, but his eyes light up now and again in the artworks depicting him.
• Satanic Archetype: Embodies this so much that it hurts. While many people often attribute Hades to this, Ares has shown to bear more parallels to Satan than any one else throughout the story.
  • Virtually everyone hates him. In fact, the only people who seem to show any kind of fondness for him are his followers. Even his own family is disapproving of him, despite Athena's claims that they were in mourning after his death.
  • He’s referred to as a Fallen God.
  • As the god of war, he clearly revels in starting battles and generally leaving chaos in his wake.
  • As described above, it would seem his influence caused the Furies to stray from their path of hard but fair judgment into a more sadistic and malevolent one.
  • As opposed to the gold and white robes and armor worn by his father, sister and others on Olympus, Ares’s armor is far more sinister in design, befitting his status as the god of war. Complete with hellhound motifs. In addition to this, his weapons are also more sinister than the weapons used by his fellow gods, having the same hellhound design as his armor, and well as having the ability to channel hellfire through them.
  • Despite not being the god of it, Ares has a very strong fire motif (his hair for example) and summons hellfire in battle as opposed to lightning, sunlight/light, or other elements like the other Olympians.
    • Some of his weapons are also shown to be made out of hellfire as well.
  • He doesn't think to highly of humans, as despite all that Kratos had done up until his battle with the war god, even gaining the power of hope from Pandora's box and growing to the size of a mountain, Ares claims that Kratos is still "just a mortal."
  • He’s a manipulator who fooled Kratos into attacking his family. He also considers breaking an opponent's spirit as the true way to defeat them.
  • His actions have all contributed to everything bad that happens in the story.
  • He also had the desire to rebel against his father and overthrow him. Then he would reign over Olympus and possibly even bring it down eventually.
  • He promised victory to Kratos in exchange for his service, but ultimately twisted this around so that Kratos would attack his own family.
  • He briefly shouts up to Olympus and brags to his father about his accomplishments and how Zeus was foolish for sending a "broken mortal" to defeat him.
  • He's generally not the nicest deity around.
  • The fact that he tossed Orkos aside and how he lied to Kratos despite the latters servitude shows that he only cares about his own agenda.
  • Knowing all of this, one could see the "perfect warrior" he wanted to create as an Anti Christ-like figure.
  • What is also notable is that all of this was done out of his own accord. He wasn't affected by the evils of Pandora's Box like the rest of his family.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Ares only appears functionally as a character in one game within the entire series, and even then, he serves little more as a goal for Kratos to eventually claim his vengeance and doesn't present himself as much more than a Generic Doomsday Villain who wants to Take Over the World in the few scenes he does have. However, his machinations set in motion the entire saga by being the architect of Kratos's Tragic Backstory to ensure he becomes his perfect warrior that ultimately led to the destruction of the status quo of two entire mythological pantheons. There's a reason why the whole series is named God of War after all.
• Smug Snake: Downplayed compared to his mythological inspiration, who suffered multiple defeats more humiliating than whatever brash battle-hunger he displayed. This depiction of Ares truly is an outstandingly powerful god, a fearsome warrior, and a clever tactician, even stated in supplemental materials to be tied with Athena as the fourth mightiest god of the pantheon. He came up with multiple plots to overthrow his father, and when none panned out, he was quick to improvise their detrimental consequences away, as seen with how quickly he disposed of Kratos when the latter acquired Pandora's Box and thus the means to harm him. But ultimately, he never learned to stop underestimating Kratos's drive, and it was assuming that Kratos cared more about raw power and victory than he did his family, or literally turning his back on the notion that a mortal like Kratos could kill a god like him, that undid him.
• Spider Limbs: That protrude from his back, and can be used as weapons or shields.
• The Starscream: As seen in the quote below, he did entertain the notion of dethroning Zeus. And, as Ascension revealed, it was his whole plan all along.
• The Unfavorite: According to the end of the first game, at least part of the reason for his rampage through Athens is because Zeus favored Athena over him.
• Take Over the World: In Ascension, it was revealed that Ares always wanted to take over and possibly destroy Olympus. That's why he wanted Kratos to be the perfect warrior; so he could do it for him, since the gods were forbidden from fighting one another.
• Token Evil Teammate: While it's downplayed, as no one in the Greek Pantheon is anywhere close to a saint, Ares is by far the evilest and most malicious out of them all here, to the point where none of the other Olympians raise any objection to Kratos killing him and seem to unanimously think he got his just desserts. Ares is also the only Olympian that wasn't infected by Pandora's box, meaning he's the only one that actively chose to commit his crimes.
• Underestimating Badassery: Even after Kratos claimed the power from Pandora's Box, Ares dismissed him as "still just a mortal". It was the last mistake Ares would ever make.
• Unexplained Recovery: Sort of. He's still stone dead, but in III, he's shown buried in a glass tomb in the floor during the tutorial, and despite detonating in a huge explosion upon his death in the first one he's perfectly intact for an unexplained reason.
• Villain Ball: He proclaims his victory towards Zeus after having destroyed Athena's city, and claims Pandora's Box. Then Kratos comes Back from the Dead, and Kratos throws Zeus' lightning at the chain holding the box. More inexcusable when Kratos slid down a mountain to open the box while Ares just stands there doing nothing.
• Villainous Legacy: Everything that happens after his death throughout the whole God of War series, from Kratos's destructive tendencies, the corruption of the gods, and the destruction of the world, is caused by Ares's machinations.
• Villains Want Mercy: As befitting his mythological namesake's cowardice in the face of defeat, Ares meekly justifies his actions to Kratos once he's finally defeated, trying to pass off his trickery as an attempt to make Kratos a stronger ally that ought to spare the God that 'uplifted' him. Kratos acknowledges he succeeded, before running him through.
• War God: The ultimate and the most known example, and he lives up to the title when he attacks Athens.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A bizarre combination of this and For the Evulz is also the reason why he attacked not just Athens, but the rest of Greece as well.
  Ares: Zeus! Do you see now what your son can do?! You cast your favor on Athena, but her city lies in ruins before me! And now, even Pandora's Box is mine! Would you have me use it against Olympus itself?!

Poseidon

"No matter how many gods fall, there will always be another to stand against you.”

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (English, God of War), Gideon Emery (English, God of War III, Ghost of Sparta, Ascension)^{additional VAs}Gianni Gaude (Italian, God of War), Riccardo Rovatti (Italian, God of War III, Ghost of Sparta, Ascension), Alexander Golovchansky (Russian, God of War III)

"You have desecrated my kingdom! I will not forget this, Ghost of Sparta! You will answer for this afront!"

The God of the Seas and ruler of all that lives in them.

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• Ambiguously Evil: He has a legitimate reason for hating Kratos since the latter destroyed Atlantis, his patron city, and is leading an attack on his home Olympus.
• Badass Boast: Literally everything he says during his boss fight qualifies:
  I will leave nothing of you in my wake!
  The fury of the sea has been unleashed!
  All of Olympus unites against you!
  For the glory of the gods!
  For the greatness of Olympus!
  YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT US!
• Book Ends: The first god to gift Kratos his power, all the way back when Kratos was sent out to defeat Ares, is also the first god to be killed by Kratos by the time of III.
• Cool Horse: His Hippocampi, which also act as Combat Tentacles for his divine form and can wrestle Titans easily. The Hippocampi and Poseidon have a brief Call-Back in Ragnarok when Kratos encounters a Kelpie, and he mentions that he once fought a powerful water-horse that served the Greek sea god.
• Co-Dragons: With Helios to Zeus.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Kratos beats him to a bloody pulp, gouges out his eyes, and snaps his neck.
• Disney Villain Death: After the aforementioned Cruel and Unusual Death, Poseidon is thrown off a cliff and into the sea.
• The Dragon: While he's Co-Dragons with Helios, he deserves special mention as the one that causes the Titans the most trouble in the prologue, and would probably have killed all of them himself if Kratos hadn't been present.
• Domestic Abuser: A letter of his implies he abused the woman kept in his quarters.
• Eldritch Abomination: His One-Winged Angel form certainly qualifies.
• Fighting a Shadow: Makes a giant avatar of himself out of rock and water.
• Hellish Horse: His Hippocampi, which are powerful enough to bring down a Titan and mix traits of crab and horse.
• Kryptonite Factor: Separation from water weakens Poseidon. He is in full power only while taking on an avatar of himself made of water; when Gaia separates Poseidon from the ocean, Kratos is given ample opportunity then to kill him.
• Large Ham: Everything he says in his fight with Kratos is powerfully dramatic. He's more low-key after being defeated, however.
• Lord of the Ocean: Greek God of the seas, with extensive water-based abilities.
• Making a Splash: What did you expect from the god of seas? He's also apparently made of water, as we can see when Kratos throws him off Mount Olympus.
• Never My Fault: He blames Kratos for the destruction of Atlantis, even though Kratos wouldn't have caused nearly as much destruction had Poseidon himself not summoned Scylla to impede his progress. He also leaves a letter blaming his mistreatment of the Sex Slave in his quarters on Zeus for making him angry.
• One-Winged Angel: His battle form, a towering humanoid avatar of seawater on a "chariot" of rock, brandishing a giant stone trident, with Hippocampi extending from him.
• Only Sane Man: When Poseidon was calm and rational, he was able to figure out that something had changed Zeus for the worst by saying he was "no longer the brother I knew." However, he was killed before he was able to do anything about it.
• Pet the Dog: According to his notes, he genuinely cared for the slave girl in his quarters.
• Position of Literal Power: He really lives up to his reputation as the Ruler of the Ocean. He's capable of tackling a Titan with the force of a meteor and knocking it off Mount Olympus and punching a hole in him.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  Poseidon: You have disrespected the Gods for the last time, Kratos!
• Prongs of Poseidon: Naturally: he wields a gigantic stone trident in III during his battle with Kratos and Gaia.
• Shock and Awe: As god of the sea and storms, he has some control of Lightning, judging from Poseidon's Rage and a cutscene of the Titanomachy in II.
• Tron Lines: Blue ones.
• Villainous Valour: His extreme animosity towards Kratos in III is revealed to be largely a result of Kratos having destroyed Atlantis during the events of Ghost of Sparta.
• Who Dares?: "You challenge me, mortal? A god of OLYMPUS?!"
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: His bolts are light blue in color, while Zeus' ones are rather green/yellowish.

Hades

"I knew you would be back, Spartan. Did you miss me?"

Voiced by: Nolan North (English, God of War), Clancy Brown (English, God of War III), Fred Tatasciore (English, Ascension)^{additional VAs}Marco Pagani (Italian, God of War), Gianni Gaude (Italian, God of War III), Dmitry Polonsky (Russian, God of War III)

"Welcome, Spartan! Come in! Make yourself at home. This time, you won't be leaving."

The God of the Underworld who governs the souls of the dead.

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• Affably Evil: "Evil" is pushing it, but Hades acts remarkably polite to Kratos, albeit in a rather sarcastic fashion, despite utterly despising the Spartan and wanting to kill him.
• Ambiguously Evil: Hades never actually goes against Kratos without a good reason. Even after being infected by the evils of Pandora's Box, he still has a good reason (several, by that point, one of which is that Kratos murdered his beloved wife) to want Kratos dead. However, Hephaestus says that he “deserved to suffer”.
• Badass Boast: "A moment's pain is nothing!" "Your death will only be the beginning of your suffering!"
• Body Horror: He has mottled, reddish skin and his body is pierced with jagged spikes. In the final stage of his boss fight, he has several large chunks of flesh missing from his torso exposing his organs, and the crown of his skull is severely cracked and bleeding.
• The Brute: Though he can also use spiritual techniques, as the god of the Underworld. He's certainly the bigger and more brutal of the Olympians.
• The Cameo: Hades has his own stage in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, where he overlooks the players as they fight, laughing at times. At times, he will slam his Claws into the ground, stunning any player caught in the blast radius. Then... his stage is invaded by Patapons, which begin to attack him... and despite Hades' efforts to dispatch them, they kill him.
• Combat Sadomasochist: One of his battle quotes is "I live for pain!"
• Dark Is Not Evil: Unlike the other gods, he has plenty of legitimate gripes with Kratos.
• Deadpan Snarker: Much of his lines to Kratos as such, such as:
  Hades: I knew you would be back, Spartan. Did you miss me?"
  • His Motive Rant below is basically a monologue of sarcasm and snark so thick, you could cut it with the Blades of Chaos.
• Dual Wielding: Two giant claws, to be more exact.
• Due to the Dead: He constructed a giant effigy in honour of his late wife - an enormous statue of his upper half that looks over the coffin that Persephone rests in. He also managed to grow an enormous tree below her, to honour her status as the daughter of Demeter.
• Duel Boss: A brief segment of his battle has both Kratos' and Hades' left chains get tangled up; rather than try and back off to get untangled, they start swinging their right-hand weapons at each other while trying to tug the other into the chasm between them.
• Everybody Hates Hades: The makers attempt to avert it, by giving Hades some actually sympathetic motivation for his hatred on Kratos, and by portray him as a grieving loving husband, as well as the implication at the end of the game that it's the dark powers of Pandora's Box that made him a sadistic monster.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For a given value of "evil" — Hades does seem to love his family, and despises Kratos because he just won't stop killing them. He also genuinely loved Persephone despite her hatred of him; he punished Peirithous and Theseus in the underworld because they tried to kidnap Persephone to make her Peirithous' wife.
• Evil Is Visceral: While how evil Hades is is debatable, he's covered in raw, bloody looking flesh, and his face is deformed and corpselike.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Though "evil" would be pushing it.
• Evil Uncle: Subverted; He's still loyal to Zeus, and Kratos ain't much the nephew of the year either. Actually, Kratos' willingness to kill his own family is the reason why Hades hates him to the core.
• Face of a Thug: Despite his demonic appearance, Hades is one of the more reasonable Gods even after being infected via Pandora's Box.
• The Ghost: Hades doesn't show up in Chains of Olympus— although he is mentioned and a statue of him does appear— although his past actions are essential to the plot, providing motivation for the game's Big Bad, Persephone.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Kratos uses the Claws of Hades to steal his soul.
• Hooks and Crooks: The Claws of Hades, wicked-looking angular hooks emanating a purple hue, they can literally rip souls from their bodies.
• Humanoid Abomination: All the other Olympians are at least human-looking, except maybe for some supernatural detail... then there's Hades, a lumbering ogre of a man who, in the first game, sports a reptilian visage with an oval, jawless mouth ringed with fangs and horns. In the sequel he gets a fiery helmet that hides his features... and spikes protunding from/stabbed into his body.
• It's Personal: He deeply hates Kratos because the Ghost of Sparta killed his niece, his brother, and his wife.
• Made of Iron: He takes a lot of punishment in his fight with Kratos, yet keeps coming back for more. In the end, Kratos needs to rip out Hades' soul to get him to stay down.
• Moral Myopia: Hades seems to have a pretty massive blind spot where Persephone is concerned; he genuinely loves her, even though he tricked her into marrying him, for which she despises him and all of Olympus, and he holds a major grudge against Kratos for killing her, not seeming to care that she was trying to destroy Olympus and the rest of reality at the time.
• Motive Rant:
  Hades: Kratos, so glad you could carve out some time for us! You know, we need it... I sense some bad blood between us, Kratos. Oh, all the memories, they're overwhelming really. Let's see. How many sins have you committed against me? Oh, that's right, you murdered my niece, Athena. And what else? What else?! Ah, and you killed my brother, Poseidon. And I have not forgotten that it was you who butchered my beautiful queen! I will see you suffer as I have suffered. Your soul is MINE!!!
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the Ruler of the Dead and one of the most powerful bosses.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Kratos' red. Also note that they share similar weapons and fighting styles, but of opposing colors (red for Kratos, blue for Hades).
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He does shout from time to time but doles out threats in a quiet, borderline gentle voice just as often, and he's certainly a sadist when Kratos is involved.
• Spikes of Villainy: Protruding from his skin. Urgh. And it's heavily implied that they're in there because he enjoys the pain.
• Stout Strength: Hades has quite a gut, but he still gives Kratos one hell of a fight. He also effortlessly pulls the Titan Oceanus off of Mount. Olympus, a Titan that Hades could fit in the palm of.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The husband of Persephone.
• Variable-Length Chain: He uses the Claws of Hades in the same way Kratos wields his Blades.
• Villain Has a Point: All of Hades' grievances with Kratos are pretty legitimate, even if Hades ignores a few details (such as Athena's death being an accident, and Persephone nearly destroying the entire world).
• Villainous Valour: From his POV, he's not just defending himself, he's avenging all the wrongs that Kratos has done to him and his family.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He only wears a tattered skirt and his helm. Played for horror far more than fan service, though.
• You Killed My Father: You Killed My Brother, Wife, And Niece! And Nephew, but no one really likes Ares. Kratos also does go on to kill Hades' actual father later in the game, but it's unlikely he would have been bothered by that.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: His chains, The Claws of Hades, can rip people's souls out of their bodies. He even says this when he first attacks Kratos. Kratos, however, turns the tables on Hades and uses the claws to claim his soul instead.

Helios

"The Titans will fail again!"

Voiced by: Dwight Schultz (English, Chains of Olympus), Crispin Freeman (English, God of War III, God of War: Ragnarok Valhalla)^{additional VAs}Gigi Rosa (Italian), Alexander Gavrilin (Russian)

The God of the Sun who flies around the world, shedding daylight on his chariot.

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• Adaptational Personality Change: In the Valhalla DLC, Helios is noticeably more rude and vulgar than he ever was in the Greek saga. Justified, as this isn’t the real Helios, just an embodiment of Kratos’ own self-doubts and intrusive thoughts.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original myths, Helios was on good terms with Hephaestus, or at least considered him worth pitying, seeing as how it was the Sun God who told Hephaestus about Aphrodite’s affair with Ares. Here, when Kratos mentions the Smith God to Helios, the latter dismisses him as a freak, pointing out how he was cast out of Olympus. Pandora’s Box could’ve been infecting Helios’ mind at that point, however.
• Allegorical Character: In the Valhalla DLC, the Helios that the realm manifests represents Kratos' self doubts about properly becoming the God of War again and hatred for his past actions.
• Ambiguously Evil: Helios is one of the few gods without a good reason to hate Kratos, and all in all he is one of the nicer gods; in Chains of Olympus, he actually feels pity for Kratos and ponders to Athena whether they should help him, only for Athena to assure him that the Ghost of Sparta will live. He still tries to defend Olympus and by extension the world from Kratos' destructive rampage. Valhalla has Kratos admit that despite considering him "insufferable" his killing of Helios was unjust, meaning Kratos at least believes Helios didn't actually deserve to die (or at least, not in such a horrible way).
• And I Must Scream: It's left ambiguous whether Helios was actually killed when Kratos ripped his head off, or if he's in some way still alive as a severed head. His head can be heard faintly screaming whenever Kratos pulls it out, implying that the latter is true and Helios is somehow still alive. Although dialogue from the Norse era games and developer comments make it clear that all the Greek deities are considered well and truly dead at this point.
• Ascended Extra: While his death in 3 was certainly one of the most memorably brutal moments of the game, and Chains of Olympus revolved around restoring the sun, much of Helios' relevance came through his severed head providing light. It's a bit of a surprise, then, that he plays the largest role out of the Greek Gods in Kratos' memories in Valhalla, including outright replacing Mimir as his companion at times.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Since he's still understandably peeved at Kratos for what he did in Greece, when Helios' head takes Mimir's place on his belt while in Valhalla, his banter with Kratos is far more venomous and spiteful than Mimir's.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Kratos frees Helios and puts the sun back in the sky, the sun god saves him from falling to his death. After everythng Kratos does in III, the manifestation of Helios in Valhalla bitterly reminisces on what a mistake it was to help him.
• Blatant Lies: In an attempt to save himself from Kratos in III, but especially to get rid of Kratos in one single blow, he lies and says that he has to step into the Flame of Olympus to receive its power. Having already been told by Hephaestus that touching the Flame means instant death, Kratos doesn't buy it for a second.
  Helios: And you believe him?! That freak has fallen from the graces of Olympus!
  Kratos: That is exactly why I believe him.
• The Bus Came Back: He (or rather, a mental projection of him from Kratos' subconscious) shows up in God of War Ragnarök in the Valhalla DLC, replacing Mimir as the head on Kratos' hip at times.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Kratos tries to rid himself of Helios in Valhalla (or rather, a projection of Helios created by Valhalla) by offering him up to a sacrificial altar, but Kratos almost learns too late that Valhalla was channeling his memory of Helios through Mimir.
• Character Catchphrase: "Feel the wrath of the sun!"
• Cool Helmet: He wears a golden helmet into battle, consistent with the Homeric Hymns.
• Cool Horse: His flaming steeds that pull his chariot across the sky.
• Co-Dragons: With Poseidon to Zeus.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Kratos rips his head clean off with his bare hands, with the camera sparing no gruesome, skin-ripping detail. What makes this especially cruel is that Kratos could have easily and quickly cut it off, yet he chose to rip it off as Helios screams in agony.
• Defector from Decadence: Despite his appearance, he is indeed a Titan who sides with the Gods.
• Defiant to the End: Inverted. While he does pull every trick in the book to get Kratos to not kill him, each one fails, resulting in him accepting his fate, spitefully telling the Spartan that his death will never lead him to Zeus. He was wrong.
• Enemy Without: Of a sort in the Valhalla DLC, as Helios over the course of the story is really just an extension of Valhalla's function of forcing the participant into looking into oneself, thus Helios's role is to serve as a physical voice of Kratos's inner doubts and self-hatred through the manifestation of the victim of one of his most infamous crimes in his prior life. The moment that Kratos comes to terms with himself, Helios ceases to exist and stops replacing Mimir from thereon... for one run. He'll keep returning in Greece to perform the same function, saying Kratos wants him around to remind the Ghost of Sparta of what he did to Greece.
• Evil Counterpart: The Valhalla DLC for Ragnarok frames him as one to Mimir when his head replaces Mimir's periodically as Kratos explores Valhalla. Like Mimir, he's the decapitated head of a god that Kratos carries around for aid. But Mimir was beheaded willingly and has become Kratos' friend and confidante who offers him advice, while Helios lost his head to Kratos' vengeful rage and he (or at least, Kratos' projection of him from his mind) is very bitter and spiteful to Kratos and insults and sneers at him. Mimir even calls attention to their similar deaths for the sake of noting Kratos' technique has been "refined" since his Greek days.
• Fantastic Light Source: He is the sun. Killing him curiously only makes the world enter in a eternal rain without direct sunlight, however.
• Jerkass: Putting it simply; when even a guy like Tyr gets sick of your shit within two interactions, chances are you might be a dick. The apparition of Helios that appears in Valhalla is a smarmy, unpleasant and venomous little pissant who relentlessly belittles, insults and talks down to Kratos and the progress he's made since his rampage in Greece, though given the way he was killed and why he was killed, Helios's anger is a bit understandable.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He, or rather, Kratos's mental projection of Helios, is snide, sarcastic, and quite plainly bitter about Kratos still being around after the events of III, but his attitude is very warranted, as admitted by Kratos himself, for the cruel and brutal way he executed the god and the destruction that followed.
• Ink-Suit Actor: In III, his face is modelled after his voice actor, Crispin Freeman. As such, you spend 3/4s of the game using Crispin Freeman's head as a flashlight. Lovely thought, no?
  • This continues to be the case in Ragnarök: Valhalla, where Crispin Freeman's head dangles from Kratos' hip instead of Mimir.
• Knight Templar: A possible interpretation of his actions in GOW3. He seems remarkably determined to not let the Titans triumph (who are his own kind in the original mythology), and even though he may have been corrupted by cowardice, he still is determined to not let Kratos kill Zeus, to the point that it results in extremely poorly-made decisions.
• Large Ham: "Feel the power... OF THE SUN!!"
• Light Is Good: Played with. He himself is as arrogant as the average god (except for a brief Pet the Dog moment in the prequel where he feels sorry for Kratos), but his absence means the sky will be covered by dark clouds. After Kratos impales himself and releases Hope into the world, Helios might not be necessary anymore.
• Light 'em Up: Can shine to an blinding intensity.
• Mundane Utility: His head makes a great lantern for Kratos.
• Off with His Head!: Unlike most examples of this trope, Helios has his head ripped off (quite graphically, at that), rather than cut off.
• Pet the Dog: During the ending of Chains Of Olympus, he displays sympathy for Kratos and expresses the desire to help him. Notably, this is before the gods are corrupted at the hands of Pandora's Box, suggesting that Helios's original personality wasn't particularly evil.
  • Even if he's deeply sarcastic about it, he does fulfill Mimir's role of warning Kratos of attacks when he replaces Mimir's head on Kratos' hip.
  • He also compliments Kratos' combat skill after finishing a battle in Valhalla on rare occasions, proclaiming that "this is the Kratos who brought down Atlas." Notably, this is one of the very few times his tone doesn't sound sarcastic.
• Playing with Fire: The Sun also burns.
• The Power of the Sun: Trope Namer, though in the end, it did not save him from his horrible demise.
• Rejected Apology: In the Valhalla DLC, when Kratos tries to apologize for killing him, Helios makes it very clear that he's having none of it. Of course, this is because Kratos struggles still with the idea he deserves forgiveness.
  Kratos: I know you are a projection of the mind...but for what it is worth, the death I gave you was unjust.
  Helios: Ohh...how touching. Yeah, not actually worth the spittle it took to mumble that out. Do not do that again. Nobody wants to hear that from you.
• Sadly Mythtaken: The original Helios was a Titan, not an Olympian.
• Sour Supporter: When he takes Mimir's place in parts of Valhalla, he'll warn Kratos of enemies like Mimir does, but will do so in hostile, venomous manner. Though he can hardly be blamed given how Kratos tore his head from his body.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Considering Kratos brutally ripped his head off, it makes sense that Kratos would imagine that Helios wouldn't be too thrilled about helping out his killer, which is the case for Valhalla's recreation of Helios in the DLC.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Even beyond his Pandora's Box induced sins, he's much more bitter and sarcastic in Valhalla. It's understandable considering Kratos ripped his head off and used it as a flashlight, (after Helios saved his life no less) even without considering that he's a manifestation of Kratos' memories.

Hermes

"You have your own sense of honor. Right, Kratos? And what has that "honor" brought you?!"

Voiced by: Greg Ellis (English)^{additional VAs}Daniele Demma (Italian), Andrey Barkhudarov (Russian)

The messenger of the Olympians, faster than any mortal.

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• Ambiguously Evil: A bit of a jerk, but everything he says about Kratos is true and like some of the others he is defending his home from an attack by a madman. Oh, and Kratos killed his son giving Hermes a legitimate reason to hate Kratos (although that part has been rendered non-canon).
• An Arm and a Leg: Kratos slices off both his legs.
• Animal Motif: Flies. He's fast, annoying, weak, Kratos compares him to "a fly from the ass of Zeus", and when he dies he releases a plague of flies.
• Boisterous Weakling: He's a big talk, but take his speed from him, and there's not much left.
• Braggart Boss: He brags a lot to Kratos.
• Bullying a Dragon: He's dumb enough to taunt Kratos, a guy who's killing his way through the Olympians and has a history of thinking that Murder Is the Best Solution.
• The Chessmaster: Unlike the other gods; Hermes takes a guile approach in fighting Kratos as he leads Kratos through the chaotic warzone and into traps so he can catch Kratos off-guard. Unfortunately, Kratos is able to power through the traps and manages to corner Hermes in a building after injuring his leg. Hermes does try to put up one last stand against Kratos but he is soon killed.
• Cowardly Boss: Subverted; he knows full well that he doesn't stand a chance against Kratos in close combat, and so attempts to use the chaotic environment around Olympus to kill him. It didn't end up as he planned. When he knew he couldn't run away any longer, he took a last stand against Kratos so he can die fighting.
• Evil Brit: has a British accent.
• Evil Laugh: Smug and high-pitched.
• Flash Step: He's extremely quick.
• Fragile Speedster: His primary ability is in his speed as it allows him to outrun anyone in Olympus but Hermes is not a fighter, he's the messenger of the gods. When Kratos attacks Olympus, Hermes uses his speed to trick Kratos into going into dangerous areas so he'd die from the chaos or die from the various ambushes.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Kratos has to constantly follow him through Olympus until he can finally kill him.
• Hannibal Lecture: When he was at Kratos' mercy, he mocked Kratos about his "sense of honor" and how it had given him nothing but "nightmares of your failures". Kratos didn't seem to give it much, but later it turned out it had some effects on Kratos' mind regarding his conscience.
• Hate Sink: Hermes is particularly despised by players. Not because he actually does anything particularly evil or cruel; merely because of his annoying personality.
• In a Single Bound: Capable of some truly impressive leaps.
• I Shall Taunt You: Constantly mocks Kratos.
• Jerkass: One of the first things he says to Kratos is extremely cruel, and more or less sums up how Hermes views the Spartan.
  Hermes: Kill any family members lately?
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • His remark about Kratos killing family members, while horribly cruel, is perfectly accurate; in God of War III alone, Kratos has killed two of his uncles (Poseidon and Hades) by the time he runs into Hermes, and he goes on to kill his half-brothers Hercules and Hephaestus, his step-mother Hera, and his father Zeus.
  • When he is about to be killed, he insults Kratos's sense of honor and points out how Kratos was only using his honor as an excuse to do whatever he wants. Kratos seems to have taken this to heart, as he doesn't immediately kill him to shut him up. This is heard again when Kratos is hallucinating that he has to wade through the blood of the people he killed as he hears their voices cursing him.
    Hermes: I thought Spartans fought with honor, and yet, you seek to kill me when I have no way to defend myself? Not fair! ...But you have your own sense of honor. Right, Kratos? And what has that honor brought you? Nothing but nightmares of your failure! Today, you may defeat me. But in the end Kratos, in the end, you'll betray only yourself.
• Karmic Death: Kratos chops his legs off.
• Large Ham: His taunts are in no way subtle.
• Light Is Not Good: In GOW 3, his hair is made of light.
• Le Parkour: He overcomes obstacles through pure speed and maneuverability.
• Not Worth Killing: Subverted, Kratos initially dismisses him as a "fly from the ass of Zeus" that isn't worth his time... until Hermes decides to taunt him.
• Pride: The ending reveals that he was infected with Pride from Pandora's Box, hence why he was so full of himself when he confronted Kratos.
• Sissy Villain: With his lithe figure, angular face, lilting, sing-song voice, effeminate mannerisms and snow-white tunic, whose method of attack is slapping Kratos, Hermes stands out as a sissy villain.
• Smug Snake: He taunts Kratos constantly, despite being nowhere near a match for him.
• The So-Called Coward: Hermes seems to be a coward, but he also fights Kratos hand-to-hand despite having an injured leg and being physically outmatched, which definitely counts for something in terms of bravery.
• Sore Loser: When Kratos gets the better of him, Hermes starts mocking Kratos's sense of honor, even complaining that Kratos wanting to kill him is "not fair".
• Sprint Shoes: The Boots of Hermes.
• Super-Speed: His only power is terrific speed.
• Too Slow: He spends the entire pre-battle chase and the battle itself mocking Kratos' speed.
  "You may have brute force — but you lack speed!"
  "I have the speed of Olympus with me, mortal!"
  "Lazy mortal!"
  "Close, Spartan. But you'll have to try harder!"
  "So slow."
  "I will always be faster than you!"
  "I am still quick enough for you!"
• Uriah Gambit: Since Hermes has no hope of winning a fight against a former god of war, he makes Kratos run after him through the most dangerous areas so that he will either die from the multiple ambushes or die from the chaos. When Kratos survives, Hermes tries to duke it out by fighting with his bare hands and an injured leg.
• What You Are in the Dark: During the war, it would have been very easy for Hermes to just run away from Kratos or utilize his skills in another way to defeat or trap him. Instead, Hermes chooses to taunt Kratos and fight with everything he had despite being severely outmatched. A vast contrast to Zeus, a stronger Olympian who's relying on his brothers, his sisters, and his own children to fight on his behalf and die for him because he's too afraid of Kratos usurping him.

Artemis

Voiced by: Claudia Black (English)^{additional VAs}Elisabetta Cesone (Italian)

The Goddess of Hunting and Apollo's twin sister.

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• Action Girl: Being goddess of the hunt, this is a given. However, downplayed and subverted in that we never see her fight in the series proper.
• Cool Sword: She owns a huge curved sword she once used to slay a Titan and borrows to Kratos in the first game.
• Demoted to Extra: In Greek myths, Artemis is one of the twelve most important and revered Olympian deities, while in this series she is reduced to a minor character.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In the artworks she wears only an helmet and two pieces of armor plate covering her shoulders and one of her breasts, leaving the rest of her body completely naked.
• The Ghost: Is more mentioned by others than outright seen in person. Granted, due to Greek mythology having numerous characters, many of them don't appear properly here and instead serve simply as cameos. ^note Amphitrite, Asclepius, Chronos, Circe, Demeter, Dionysus, Erebus, Eris, Eros, Hestia, Hypnos, Hyperion, Nemesis, Nike, Nyx, Ouranos, Pan, Phobos, Thalassa and Theia to name a few.
• Horned Humanoid: Had small horns in the first game. Artwork for Ascension also shows her helmet sporting horns.
• Jerkass Gods: In the comics, when she took part in the Wager of the Gods, she curses her tribe with stillborn children to force them to search for the Ambrosia.(However there are stories in greek mythology of Artemis causing women to have stillborn births.)
• Named Weapons: The Blade Of Artemis belongs to her.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Concept art shows her as one, but with a lion's body instead of a horse.
• Panthera Awesome: Could shapeshift into a lion-like creature, symbolizing her being the goddess of hunting.
• Promoted to Playable: Was planned to appear in Ascension 's multiplayer mode as a controllable character, but the idea was scrapped.
• The Unfought: Along with Apollo, Demeter, Hestia and Dionysus she is one of the remaining twelve Olympians that are never fought by Kratos.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not known what became of Artemis after the first game's events. She is not accounted for in God of War III.
• You Dont Look Like Yourself: In the original game, she had small horns on her head, was covered in ivy (which would be more appropriate for either Demeter or Hestia) and had African-like facial features. While it's cut content, concept art for Ascension shows her as a Caucasian and without the ivy (her helmet has horns, though). One could chalk it up to her using her godly powers to change her appearance.

Apollo

The God of Light and Artemis' twin brother.

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• Cool Crown: Befitting for a god of light.
• Demoted to Extra: In Greek myths, Apollo is one of the twelve most important and revered Olympian deities, while in this series he is reduced to a minor character.
• The Ghost: Doesn't ever appear physically, but is mentioned by others. Also several images and items bear his visage.
• God of Light: Apollo is the Greek god of light.
• Named Weapons: The Bow of Apollo.
• Our Founder: People in the Temple of Delhi and the island of Delos worship him as their chief patron god and so have made statues and paintings in his image.
• Pretty Boy: His statues depict him as beardless, young and attractive, while the tie-in novels refer to him as "pretty but boring".
• The Unfought: Along with Artemis, Demeter, Hestia and Dionysus he is one of the remaining twelve Olympians that are never fought by Kratos.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It is never revealed what happened to him and the others after the events of III. According to Cory Barlog they are all indirectly killed by Kratos' actions.

Aphrodite

Voiced by: Carole Ruggier (English, God of War), April Stewart (English, God of War III)^{additional VAs}Elisabetta Fellini (Italian), Olga Zubkova (Russian)

The Goddess of Love and Hephaestus's very unfaithful wife.

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• All Women Are Lustful: To an absolutely absurd degree. All creation is falling apart around her home and all she cares about is enjoying the pleasures of the flesh, first with her handmaidens and then with Kratos.
• The Burlesque of Venus: When she is being served by her handmaidens in her official appearance in III, her bed looks superficially like a giant clam.
• Cleavage Window: Or rather, "entirety of both breasts" window; same goes for her maidens.
• Depraved Bisexual: She regularly cheats on Hephaestus, having threesomes with her handmaidens and then with Kratos (optional, by the player's choice).
• Extreme Libido: She is first depicted having a threesome with her slave maidens, then Kratos arrives and she pushed her slave maidens away as she was very eager to have a go with Kratos. Her handmaidens are no different; after sandwiching their goddess, they become so aroused watching her Optional Sexual Encounter with Kratos that they end up having sex with each other on the spot.
• Gorgeous Greek: Being the greek goddess of love and sexuality, Aphrodite appears as a young woman of incredible beauty. She is slender, tall and olive skinned, while her breasts are large and perfectly shaped. The goddess proudly exhibits her beauty by wearing an outfit that leaves most of her body naked.
• The Hedonist: Prefers having sex with her slave maidens (and possibly Kratos) over anything else.
• Hot Coffee Minigame: In III. Unlike in other games (where the focus point during the button mash is an innocuous piece of scenery), this one has the focus on her handmaidens feeling each other up and saying that it's not for kids.
• It's All About Me: Voices her clear frustration to Kratos about not having any men come into her chambers, then promises to help him if only he shared her bed.
• Kick the Dog: Dismisses her husband Hephaestus as "worthless" and cheats on him without a hint of remorse.
• Love Goddess: Subverted. Given her constant cheating on Hephaestus and focus on sex rather than love she comes off as more of a lust goddess. This is largely accurate to the mythological Aphrodite however (at least in her aspect as "Aphrodite Pandemos", which she appeared as most frequently in stories).
• Lust: An understatement to say the least. While she had an Extreme Libido to begin with, being infected by Lust and Vanity from Pandora's Box probably didn't help.
• Ms. Fanservice: She isn't even teasing, her boobs are exposed.
• Pink Is Erotic: Aphrodite makes her first physical appearance in Olympus. She has a high sex drive and is found having sex with her handmaidens as both Greece and Olympus are falling apart because of Kratos. Aphrodite's Chamber has a pink and purple color scheme to reflect her title as the goddess of sex.
• Really Gets Around: Love has no frontiers. She's seen having sex with no less than three different people (two of whom she was with at the same time) in the run of a few minutes.
• Sex Is Evil: Cheating on her husband isn't particularly ethical.
• Situational Sexuality: Because there aren't any men around, she has sex with her slave maidens instead. Then Kratos arrives and she sends them away so that she could seduce him.
• Skewed Priorities: Not really her (she's a goddess after all, she can handle things), but her apparently human handmaidens: the very world is crumbling in ruin around them outside, but they only think of "sandwiching" their lady.
• Stripperific: Her clothes are so revealing that one wonders why she bothers dressing at all. Her handmaids are likewise uncovered, probably for Aphrodite's own benefit.
• Token Good Teammate: Out of the gods Kratos encounters on Olympus, Aphrodite is the only one who doesn't try to kill him. Even if he doesn't have sex with her, she helps him despite clearly being disappointed. That said, she isn't particularly nice (cheats on her husband who loves her and calls him "worthless").
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Far more attractive than Hephaestus.
• Uncertain Doom: Her final fate is unconfirmed. While she is pretty much the only Olympian to survive Kratos, it's possible that she might have been killed when Gaia's corpse crushed Mount Olympus. In either case, her survival isn't accounted for at the end of the game, with Athena considering herself the last remaining Olympian, which gives credence to Aphrodite's possible death.
• The Vamp: She cares more about sexual pleasure over anything else, has no sympathy over pushing away her handmaidens so she could seduce Kratos into her bed and doesn't feel bad bashing her husband while openly cheating on him.
• Vapor Wear: She's clearly not wearing any kind of undergarments.
• While Rome Burns: While Kratos is destroying Olympus, Aphrodite is just lounging around in her chambers, enjoying the company of her handmaidens.

Hephaestus

Voiced by: Rip Torn (English)^{additional VAs}Tony Fuochi (Italian), Vladimir Antonik (Russian)

The Smith God and the finest craftsman of Olympus, as well as the creator of Pandora. He is banished to the Underworld by Zeus and blames Kratos for it. He is one of the few gods who Kratos can (and does) admit is not utter scum by the events of the third game.

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• Anti-Villain: Hephaestus only betrays Kratos when he realizes that he plans to sacrifice Pandora to open the box. When Kratos barely survives the fight with Cronos, Hephaestus uses the weapon's ability to electrocute Kratos and then uses his makeshift hammer in a desperate attempt to crush him. After killing Hephaestus, Kratos admits his respect to Pandora, indicating that he would have done the same in that scenario. The way he said it also shows that Kratos would have thought worse of Hephaestus if he not attacked him to protect Pandora.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Hephaestus talks to Kratos about Pandora, he tries to convince him to bring her to him, but Kratos refuses. Hephaestus does break through by saying that he should understand because "you were once a father too". Kratos doesn't have a response, but stops and seems to question himself, but ultimately continues.
• Being Good Sucks: On the most decent gods (if not the nicest god) who never manipulated Kratos for his own good and did whatever he could to protect Pandora from danger by forging and hiding Pandora's Box. As punishment for Kratos finding the Box, Zeus brutally beat him into his current disfigured state, took and imprisoned Pandora, and forced him to live alone in a dank pit in the Underworld.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has a rather snarky sense of humor.
  Kratos: I pursue only one Olympian.
  Hephaestus: Well, as long as it's only one Olympian. (chuckles)
• Emasculated Cuckold: He is married to Aphrodite, who is more or less the Anthropomorphic Personification of female sexual lust and has wanton sex with anything that moves. As per the original mythology she had an affair with Ares in the past, and when Hephaestus sees someone coming out of Aphrodite's portal he is dejected to find out it's Kratos, and sourly asks him if Aphrodite has "conquered" another God of War.
• Evil Laugh: It's very brief, but the player can hear one as the Forge's door closes behind Kratos when Hephaestus sends him in search of the Omphalos Stone, knowing that he just sent the Spartan to certain death.
• Face–Heel Turn: While somewhat friendly to Kratos at first (being one of the few gods to do so), he becomes his enemy when learning that he seeks to unlock the Flame of Olympus using Pandora, which will kill her. Kratos admits later that he, like Hepheastus, would also kill to protect his child and thus holds no grudge.
• False Reassurance: He promises to make the Nemesis Whip for Kratos and give him the retribution he finally deserves. His "retribution" is Hephaestus trying to kill Kratos to protect Pandora.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Before his time in the underworld, he looked as normal as a middle-aged blacksmith could look until Zeus messed with him and disfigured him.
• Kicked Out of Heaven: After Kratos opened Pandora's box, something Hephaestus said would be impossible, Zeus beat him senseless and banished him to the Underworld because of it. This very trope is exactly why Kratos trust Hephaestus words about the Flames of Olympus instead of Helios.
• Papa Wolf: To Pandora. The prospect of Kratos killing her makes Hephaestus turns against him.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The only thing that convinces Hephaestus to work together with Kratos is the prospect of him killing Zeus. Especially since because of Kratos, Hephaestus was crippled and locked in Hell before having his daughter Pandora taken away by Zeus after Kratos found and used Pandora's Box, repeatedly sexually cheated on by his wife Aphrodite, especially by Kratos, who activated the gateway Hephaestus had been trying to use to see his beloved spouse, and planned to use Pandora to open Pandora's Box despite the fact it would lead to her death. It's really no wonder he tried to kill Kratos when he had the chance.
• Truly Single Parent: While he didn't initially intend to make Pandora as a daughter, he forged her out of the very Flame of Olympus as a living key. He fell in love with her in a fatherly way and came to regard her as his own child regardless.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The husband of Aphrodite.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: The god of them and one of the Trope Codifiers.
• Uriah Gambit: He attempted to use this card on Kratos during the middlegame. Fearing for Pandora's life, he sent Kratos to Tartarus to find the Omphalos Stone, without telling him that Cronos had it, and that he now had a grudge on Kratos since he tried to kill Gaia.

Hera

Voiced by: Adrienne Barbeau (English)^{additional VAs}Stefania Patruno (Italian), Ludmila Ilyina (Russian)

The Queen of the Olympians, often disillusioned by her husband/brother Zeus's infidelity.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: In-universe, the statues of Hera are way more flattering than how she's seen in real life. The statues were either made when she was younger or she demanded them to be more beautiful.
• Adaptational Nice Girl: Hephaestus states that Hera would brag about his skills as a blacksmith. While in the actual mythology, Hera was the one who threw him off Mount Olympus for being deformed.
• Affair? Blame the Bastard: She hates the demigods because they are the products of Zeus's many infidelities. The reason why she pits Hercules and Kratos against each other is that she wants to watch one of them die.
• The Alcoholic: When she's encountered by Kratos, she's been drinking wine the entire game. If her characterization is any indication, she's been drinking to deal with Zeus's infidelities and the death of her son, Ares. When Kratos sees her for the final time, she's drunkenly rambling about the death of Hercules and trying to fight Kratos herself.
• Awful Wedded Life: Hera couldn't care less about the death of Zeus and says "I'll drink to that" when Kratos tells her he plans to kill Zeus. The only reasons she has for hating Kratos are that he was a "bastard child of Zeus" and because he had killed Ares, her son.
• Badass Boast: When she traps Kratos in her garden.
  Hera: You think this garden is unprotected? Your brute strength may have bested Hercules, but your simple mind will never find the way out of here. I look forward to watching you die here, as an old man.
• Brother–Sister Incest: As in the original mythology, Zeus and Hera are brother and sister.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: She looks and sounds quite a bit like Katherine Hepburn.
• Composite Character: Her power over plants is a trait usually given to Demeter, while her constant drinking could be inspired by Dionysus. However, Hera has been associated with the earth and its life-giving aspect before.
• Deadpan Snarker: Appropriate for her cynical demeanor. A memorable quip came when she sicced Hercules on Kratos.
  Hera: You boys play nice!
• Despair Event Horizon: Appears to have one when her crown is broken, but it may just be a brief mood swing from the wine.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Despite being drunk at the time, she seems to have caught onto the fact that Kratos has unleashed the evils of Pandora's Box and unwittingly cursed the gods with its contents.
  Hera: What have you done? What have you done to me?! You coward! You destroy all you touch!
• Enemy Mine: She partners up with Hercules to kill Kratos, someone Hera hated for being yet another demigod of Zeus.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Subverted, she may be the queen of Olympus but Kratos doesn't see her as a threat. Hera is a mere drunk who relied on Hercules to fight for her.
• Green Thumb: She apparently took over Demeter's job, as Demeter doesn't even appear in any of the games (she was mentioned briefly in Chains Of Olympus). The instant Kratos kills her, all plant life in Greece dies.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Something must have happened to her before the third game, judging by her portraits, statues, and concept art.
• Lady Drunk: Hera is drinking to deal with her unhappy marriage to Zeus, the death of her son and brothers, and the stress of the war. When she pits Kratos and Hercules against each other, she laughs the entire time because she hated them both for being the "bastard child" of Zeus.
• Mama Bear: She pits Kratos and Hercules against each other is because Kratos killed her son Ares, the only legitimate child of Hera and Zeus.
• Neck Lift: Kratos does this to her, followed by a Neck Snap.
• Neck Snap: Kratos kills her this way.
• Not Worth Killing: Subverted, Kratos initially wanted to ignore her because she wasn't a threat to him and a mere drunk. He only kills Hera out of anger when she drunkenly insulted Pandora, someone Kratos saw akin as a daughter to him.
• Outliving One's Offspring: She utterly despises Kratos for killing Ares, her only legitimate son.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a drunken, ranting one at Kratos when he meets her in her garden.
  Hera: You! I told [Zeus] to kill you. I told him the day you were born to kill you. But he wouldn't have it. My stupid husband took pity. And now look what you've wrought! Look at this! (points at the dying flowers in her garden) Look at it!! They're dying because of you. Everything is dying because of you! The sun is gone. The ocean swallows the land. Disease infects what remains. (Bends down to her flowers) I'm doing all I can to keep them alive. (stares angrily at Kratos) But you. Your ruthless murdering of the Gods has caused all of this!
• Token Good Team Mate: Implied, in her rant against Kratos, she shows some concern for the mortal world as she claims that she's "doing all I can to keep them alive". It shows that she's trying to keep the vegetation alive and she was drunkenly trying to shame Kratos out of his revenge quest.
• Too Dumb to Live: While incensed by her actions, Kratos ignores her and walks away. Then she had to go and insult Pandora, pressing Kratos's Berserk Button. The results are predictable.
• Villain Has a Point: She makes a few accurate points when she calls out Kratos for his ruthlessness since his actions are destroying the vegetation, have flooded the seas, darkened the sun, and had released a plague that infects the surviving humans.

Persephone

Voiced by: Marina Gordon

The Goddess of the Underworld and Hades's wife.

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• Badass Boast: "Spartan, witness the end!"
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Had she not decided to rub in Kratos' face how thoroughly he was duped, Kratos would have been none the wiser, and stayed in the Elysian Fields with his daughter until her plans were completed. But she did, and guess how it ended.
• Breast Plate: Averted by her Hoplite-like outfit in her battle form.
• The Chessmaster: Persephone freed Atlas and instructed him to kidnap Helios, knowing that Morpheus would exploit the opportunity and create a big enough distraction from her own goals to allow her to proceed uninterrupted. She also uses visions of Calliope to manipulate Kratos into abandoning his mission to rescue Helios.
• Dark Is Evil: The black-clad Queen of the Underworld and the Big Bad of Chains of Olympus.
• Death Seeker: She intends to destroy the world, and herself with it, out of spite.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Her revenge against the gods for sticking her in an unhappy marriage is to destroy all reality and herself with it.
• Dying Curse: "Your suffering will never end, Ghost of Sparta."
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Hades, either oblivious or uncaring about Persephone's villainy and hatred of him in particularly, deeply loves her, mourns her death, and cites Kratos killing her as his primary grudge against the Spartan.
• Evil Gloating: After tricking Kratos into giving up his powers to enter the Elysian Fields, she takes the time to indulge in this, bragging about how she's behind the plot to kidnap Helios and destroy the Pillar of the World, and since Kratos fell for her tricks, there's nothing he can do to stop her. This, of course, motivates Kratos to regain his powers and thwart her.
• Eviler than Thou: Morpheus simply wanted to rule the world, but Persephone wanted to destroy all of existence.
• Final Boss: Of Chains of Olympus.
• Foil: For Kratos himself. Both of them have legitimate grievances with the gods and both are willing to go to extremes for their revenge. They're both Genius Bruisers, but emphasise opposite qualities of that trait; Kratos is a warrior, first and foremost, while Persephone is a cunning chessmaster who fights when she needs to. They both end up seeking to destroy Olympus, but unlike Persephone, who would have torn all of creation apart, Kratos' grudge is explicitly with the gods, and he doesn't seek to destroy the rest of the world in the process (not that he exactly goes out of his way to prevent collateral damage).
• Hypocrite:
  • Persephone accuses Kratos, and by extension, all of humanity, of always selfishly putting their own needs before those of others. Persephone, for her own part, is trying to destroy Olympus, and with it, the entire world and Elysium as well, to get revenge on the gods for allowing her unwanted marriage to Hades, dooming not only those responsible for her pain, but countless innocents as well.
  • She criticises Kratos for selfishly choosing to abandon his mission to be with his daughter, a choice Kratos would never have made if Persephone herself hadn't offered it to him.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: While she's the last person to be lecturing him about it, Persephone is right on the money that Kratos is an intensely selfish man. Not only is his selfishness one of his defining qualities, but he didn't hesitate for a second to accept Persephone's offer to forsake his powers and join Calliope in Elysium, abandoning the gods he'd sworn to serve to the mercies of Morpheus.
• It's All About Me: Enraged at her unwanted marriage to Hades and being forsaken by the gods, Persephone is happy to doom all of reality, Earth, Olympus, and the Underworld alike, to make up for her own grievances.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her dress is very... flattering.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her black dress has a plunging v-shaped neckline that reaches her stomach.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Her end goal was to destroy the Pillar of the World, which would have destroyed everything — Earth, Olympus, and the Underworld.
• One-Winged Angel: An armored form with wings.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Kratos when he gives up his powers to enter the Elysian Fields and be with Calliope, calling him an idiot for not realizing that without his powers, he can't save the world and everyone will be destroyed.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Her hatred of her husband Hades is wildly different than the myth, where he won her over, she married willingly and their marriage was one of the most loving and healthy among the Olympians, with both staying faithful to one another. Interestingly, this trope is only in effect from Persephone's angle as Hades is presented as a loving, grieving husband in God of War III and his hatred for Kratos is fuelled by a desire for vengeance against her killer.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: It's not only backless, it exposes the top of her butt.
• The Stoic: She's extremely cold and unemotional.
• Statuesque Stunner: While not gigantic as other gods can be, she is unnaturally taller than Kratos, though still attractive.
• Straw Nihilist: She views existence as pointless, which is why she's willing to wipe out the world.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: She was so sick of her Arranged Marriage to Hades that she decided to destroy the world and herself with it.
• Tennis Boss: Her boss fight has her throwing energy blasts at Kratos, who reflects them using a shield.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She's married to the far less attractive, borderline demonic Hades.
• Vapor Wear: Her Sexy Backless Outfit shows that she isn't wearing a bra nor panties.
• Villain Ball: She'd just gotten Kratos to cast aside his blades and renounce his powers as the Ghost of Sparta so that he can be with his daughter in the Elysian Fields. All she needs to do in order to win is leave him alone for a few hours so that her plan can be completed while he's playing with Calliope. Instead, she makes a point of telling him that she's the villain of the game (something he didn't have the slightest inkling of until she explained her plan), and that thanks to his actions, the world will soon be destroyed, and that the Elysian Plains and all the spirits living there will be destroyed with it. This motivates Kratos to reclaim his powers and save the world.
• Villain Has a Point: Persephone's main grievance— that she was tricked into marrying a man she didn't love and is forced to stay in that marriage— is legitimate, as is her feeling that she was abandoned by her fellow Olympians, none of whom lifted a finger to do anything to help her. The bit where she destroys the world to get back at them, not so much.
• Walking Spoiler: Talking too much about her character gives away the big reveal of Chain of Olympus.
• Winged Humanoid: Her One-Winged Angel form.

Morpheus

The God of Dreams.

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• Big Bad Wannabe: In Chains of Olympus. He merely took advantage of Helios' disappearance to place the world under his control through sleep. Persephone, the actual culprit, planned to destroy all of existence, making her a much bigger threat than Morpheus.
• Dark Is Evil: It’s said that he only truly prospers during night, and his minions are all dark variants of other monsters in the game.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Morpheus was initially the main villain, but he was more of a pawn to Persephone
• Fog of Doom: Morpheus' power manifests as a black fog that puts people in deep sleep.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Morpheus may not have abducted Helios, but he was more than happy to exploit the sun god's absence.
• Red Herring: It’s assumed that Morpheus is responsible for capturing Helios, leaving the whole world vulnerable to his power. Persephone is actually responsible, and he has nothing to do with her plot.
• The Unfought: Holds the dubious honor of being one of the few opponents that eluded Kratos.
• The Unseen: Morpheus never physically appears during the entire series.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not known what became of Morpheus after his attempt to take control or if he was ever punished for his deeds. He is not accounted for in God of War III.

Eos

Voiced by: Erin Torpey

The Goddess of the Dawn and Helios' sister.

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• Adaptational Modesty: Played with. In the myths, Eos was said to have an unquenchable lust for men after being cursed by Aphrodite for sleeping with Ares. This aspect is completely absent in Chains of Olympus, as she appears as a solemn and fiery goddess. Inverted as far as her clothing sense; she appears topless in the game.
• Light Is Good: She is the goddess of dawn and serves as Kratos' ally in Chains of Olympus.
• Vapor Wear: Eos' clothing consists of a large, white skirt with grey hems and a piece of white cloth covering her shoulders, while her breasts are left completely exposed.
• Non-Standard Character Design: She appears as a normal-sized woman instead of a giant like most Olympians or Titans.
• Pet the Dog: She is one of the few gods to be kind towards Kratos during his service to Zeus.
• Sadly Mythtaken: She was a Titan just like her brother.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She isn't seen again after Chains of Olympus and isn't even encountered in God of War III, where there is a section named after her. It's highly possible that she died after Helios' demise, given how weakened she became after his imprisonment.

Thanatos

Voiced by: Arthur Burghardt (English)^{additional VAs}Oleg Kutsenko (Russian)

The God of Death who predates the Olympian Gods.

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• Arc Villain: Of Ghost of Sparta.
• Badass Boast
  Thanatos: If you persist, not even the Fates will prevent me from ending your path.
• Demonic Possession: He can do this to corpses in order to taunt Kratos.
• The Dreaded: Outright stated to be this to both the gods (barring Kratos) and the titans.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Seems to genuinely love his daughter Erinys, judging by his reaction when Kratos kills her.
• Everybody Hates Hades: He plays this straight where the God Of War writers tried to avert it with Hades himself. He's a god of death who also happens to be a callous monster who separated Kratos from his brother for years, and finally kills Deimos before Kratos defeats him, purely out of spite.
• Evil Laugh: Makes use of it while fighting Kratos.
• Eye Scream: Deimos spears his right eye with the Arms of Sparta.
• Final Boss: Of Ghost of Sparta.
• Lean and Mean: And very tall to boot.
• Mistaken Identity: Once Kratos frees Deimos, Thanatos realizes Ares chose the wrong Spartan youth; Kratos is the "marked warrior" the oracle spoke of, the mark being the ashes of his wife and daughter fused to his skin.
• One-Winged Angel: A giant black skeletal demon with wings.
• Papa Wolf: Swears revenge when Kratos kills his daughter, Erinys.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Not a terrible example, but Thanatos was the god of peaceful death (though considering how his being tied up prevented Ares from killing anyone, Thanatos technically embodies all death, including violent death, while the Keres deal in death by blood loss and not other forms of death by violence). Moros, the personification/god of doom, more fits Thanatos' characterization of a being feared by all.
• Winged Humanoid: Which causes him to resemble a twisted angel.
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  Thanatos: Nothing you do is of your own choosing.

Erinys

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale/Erin Torpey (talking at the same time)

The daughter of Thanatos.

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• Anthropomorphic Personification
  Gaia: Erinys, the daughter of Thanatos, the God of Death. Pain given form, evil given life.
• Badass Boast:
  Erinys: Ghost of Sparta. The God Slayer. Your brother belongs to Thanatos, so does your blood.
• Clip Its Wings: During the fight, Kratos rips Eriny's wings off with his bare hands. She was able to regenerate them before transforming in her giant bird form. Later, weakened and reverted to her humanoid form, Erinys loses her wings for a second time, as Kratos cut them off with his blades (as well as her left arm), right before killing the goddess stabbing her chest from behind.
• Cowardly Boss: When Erinys realises that Kratos is too powerful even for her Gian Bird form, she tries to escape after destroying the bridge where she and Kratos were fighting. Unfortunately for her, Kratos manages to chase her by sliding down on the falling drebis and ultimately landing on her back.
• Cute Monster Girl: Despite her monstrous traits, her appearance can be considered fierce and beautiful with her tall and slim physique, and two large breasts which she leaves completely exposed.
• Decomposite Character: To the Furies from Greek mythology. She was initially an expy character based on a combination of all three, but ended up becoming this trope in retrospective when the Furies were introduced later in the prequel Ascension.
• Full-Frontal Assault: She wears a hood and a worn-out skirt that reveals the sides of hips and part of her buttocks, while she is naked on the upper part of her body, leaving her breasts completely exposed.
• Kick the Dog: She interrogates one unfortunate Spartan about the whereabouts of Kratos. And after he tells her what he knows (which is that he has no clue), she gruesomely disembowels him with her bare hands.
• One-Winged Angel: When she receive a sufficient amount of damage, she turns into a giant, armored bird.
• Power of the Void: She can toss some weird green orbs at you, which act as small black holes.
• Sadly Mythtaken: The Erinyes were actually several entities (at least three), not one. They weren't daughters of Thanatos, but were born from the blood spilled when Cronos castrated Uranus. Ultimately resolved with Ascension, where the Furies do actually appear as three sisters and separated characters from Erinys.
• Supermodel Strut: Other than wearing clothes which barely cover her rear, she walks in a very provocative way.
• Vapor Wear: It is pretty obvious she doesn't wear any undergarments, as her clothes consist of an hood and a worn-out skirt held by a bell that leaves her hips and part of her buttocks exposed.
• Winged Humanoid: Just like her father.

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