Minotaur

Ariadne: the Cretan princess who became a goddess

Ariadne was a princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos, who gave Theseus the thread that carried him out of the Cretan maze. Taken from the hero by Dionysus, she was raised to godhood as his wife, while the man she once saved gave the rest of his life to the hope of winning her back.

Ballista: siege engine of the Greek world

The ballista was a great crossbow of the Greek world, fixed to the ground or mounted on a moving platform and built to hurl huge wooden bolts against ships and city walls. In the hands of Kratos, these engines sank a Persian warship, drove off the Basilisk, struck the Colossus of Rhodes, slew Pandora's Guardian, and knocked the sun god Helios from the sky.

Cerberus Mongrel: the lesser hounds of the Underworld

The Cerberus Mongrels were the weakest breed of the Cerberi, gaunt three-headed hounds that served the lord of the dead. Kratos beat them into submission across two eras of his life, riding them as living weapons and turning the fire of one upon Peirithous to claim the Bow of Apollo.

Daedalus

Daedalus was the master craftsman of Athens who built the great Labyrinth for Zeus in return for the promise of his lost son Icarus. Driven to madness in years of servitude and chained within his own creation, he was crushed when Kratos set the Labyrinth turning, and died grateful at last to be free.

God of War (2005) Story Explained: Plot Summary and Ending

The whole story of the first God of War in order, from the Hydra in the Aegean to the death of Ares at Athens. Then the ending in plain terms: why Kratos jumped from the cliff, why Athena saved him, and how he ended up on Ares's throne.

Icarus

Icarus was the son of the inventor Daedalus, who fell to his death and was driven mad in the Underworld. Decades of crude repairs let him graft wings to his own flesh and escape, and he sought the Sisters of Fate to undo his fate, until Kratos tore the wings from his back at the Great Chasm.

Juggernaut

The Juggernaut, once called the Elephantaur, was a towering elephant-shaped monster that walked upright and bore Persian war-armor. Met from Kirra to Delos, it stood among the heaviest beasts Kratos faced in his hunt for the Furies.

Monster: the beasts of the mythic world

Monsters, also called Beasts, were the hostile creatures of the mythic world, beings that could be counted neither as mortals nor as gods or Titans. From the minotaurs and gorgons of Greece to the trolls and dragons of the Norse realms, they haunted every land that Kratos ever walked.

Pandora: the living key to Pandora's Box

Hephaestus made Pandora as the living key to Pandora's Box, and Zeus hid her in a labyrinth. She gave her life in the Flame of Olympus to reach it.

River Styx: the river of hatred beneath Greece

The River Styx was the great river of the Greek Underworld, a barrier that killed the living on contact and carried the souls of the dead toward judgement. Charon ferried across it, the Path of Hades bridged it, and Kratos crossed, fell into and finally swam it more times than any mortal.

The Labyrinth: the prison Zeus built for Pandora

The Labyrinth was a shifting maze of stone cubes raised inside Mount Olympus by the Athenian craftsman Daedalus at the command of Zeus, built for the sole purpose of holding Pandora away from the Flame of Olympus. Its heart hung from the Chain of Balance and the Three Judges of the dead served as the final latch of its lock.

The Undead: the dead who would not rest

The Undead were the dead returned to motion, raised by curse, godly power, or magic to serve the masters of the afterlife. In Greece they marched as soulless corpses in the armies of Ares and Hades, while in the Nine Realms the Draugr, Hel-Walkers, and Einherjar overran the living world as Ragnarok drew near.