Arms of Sparta

The Arms of Sparta were a spear and shield once carried by Kratos in the days when he was a mortal general of the Spartan army, long before he swore himself to Ares and rose to become a god of war. They returned to his hands during his search for his lost brother Deimos, and at the end of that search he gave them away and left them at his brother's grave.

A general's weapons#

The Arms of Sparta were typical Spartan arms. The spear had a long shaft set with a steel tip tinted red, and a long strip of scarlet and gold cloth wound about it. The shield was a battered piece of bronze and red bearing the Greek lambda, the mark of Lacedaemonia, the land of which Sparta was the governing capital. Kratos had carried them as a mortal general at the head of his army, in the years before he bound himself to Ares and became a god of war.

Return during the search for Deimos#

The Last Spartan kept the spear and shield while Kratos was away, and presented them to him once more after Kratos visited the Temple of Ares in Sparta during his quest to find his brother Deimos. The weapons were suited to single combat: the spear could be hurled at enemies at a distance, while the shield let Kratos charge forward and block at the same time, the first time he had been able to advance and defend as one. Toward the end of his search Kratos gave the Arms of Sparta to Deimos for their fight against Thanatos. After Deimos was killed, Kratos left the spear and shield at his brother's grave atop Suicide Bluffs.

Legacy#

The Arms of Sparta, or at least the spear among them, would be succeeded centuries later by the Draupnir Spear, the weapon Kratos came to carry during the events of his Norse journeys. In this way the spear of his mortal years found an echo in the arsenal of the god he became.