Nike
the Olympian goddess of victory
Nike was the Olympian goddess of victory, daughter of the Titan Pallas and the water goddess Styx. Though she never crossed Kratos' path in the flesh, her likeness was honored across Greece in statues, carvings, and murals raised to celebrate triumph in war.
Nike was the Olympian goddess of victory, daughter of the Titan Pallas and the water goddess Styx. In myth she sided with Zeus against the Titans, and she was honored throughout Greece as the giver of glory and fame in war, though Kratos never met her in person and knew her only through the statues and murals raised in her name. (Theogony; God of War: Chains of Olympus; God of War II; God of War III)
Birth and the war against the Titans#
The games tell nothing of Nike's early life, so her story comes from Greek myth. There she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas and the water goddess Styx, and the embodiment of victory itself. In the old myths her brother was Kratos, the god of strength, a family link traced in the Greek myth of Kratos. (Theogony)
When Zeus prepared for war against Cronos and the Titans, he called all the gods to Olympus and promised honour to any who fought on his side. In Hesiod's telling, Styx was the first to come, bringing her children Nike, Kratos, Bia, and Zelus with her. Zeus honoured Styx for it and kept her children by him for ever after the Titanomachy. (Theogony)
Honored across Greece#
Nike never appeared in the flesh during Kratos' long road of vengeance, yet her likeness stood in many places across the Greek world, raised wherever mortals and gods wished to mark their triumphs. The people of Attica built a great statue of her upon a rooftop in her honor and for victories won in war. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)
On the Island of Creation, the domain of the Sisters of Fate, a carving of Nike was made upon a wall. Kratos came upon it in the Temple of Lahkesis, in a small courtyard where an elevator descended to the chains of the Steeds of Time. Upon Mount Olympus a mural of Nike was raised in her honor. (God of War II; God of War III)
The Second Titanomachy#
When Kratos freed the Titans from their banishment in Tartarus and led them back through time to scale Mount Olympus and take their vengeance, Nike, like Artemis, Apollo, and several other gods, was nowhere to be seen among the defenders of Olympus in the second great war. Her ultimate fate amid the fall of Olympus was never recorded. (God of War III)
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Nike in God of War?
- Nike was the Olympian goddess of victory, the daughter of the Titan Pallas and the water goddess Styx. In the myths she sided with Zeus against the Titans, and in the games she is honored across Greece in statues and carvings.
- Does Nike appear in the God of War games?
- Nike never appeared in person. Her presence in the Greek world was felt through the many statues, carvings, and murals raised in her honor, including a great statue at Attica, a carving on the Island of Creation, and a mural on Mount Olympus.
- Whose side did Nike take in the war against the Titans?
- The games never say. In Hesiod's Theogony, her mother Styx was the first to answer Zeus's call before the war with the Titans and brought Nike and her brothers with her, and Zeus honored them for it.
- Did Nike take part in the Second Titanomachy?
- Not that the games show. Like Artemis and Apollo, Nike is nowhere to be seen among the defenders of Mount Olympus when the freed Titans attack it in God of War III.
Sources
- GameGod of War II, Santa Monica Studio, 2007
- GameGod of War III, Santa Monica Studio, 2010
- GameGod of War: Chains of Olympus, Ready at Dawn, 2008
- BookTheogony, Hesiod, around 700 BC
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Apollo: the Olympian who escaped Kratos
Apollo never faced Kratos in the flesh. His Flame lit the way to the Tree of Life, his Bow lay in the Underworld, and he survived the slaughter.
Artemis
Artemis was the Olympian Goddess of the Hunt, daughter of Zeus and twin sister of Apollo. When Ares besieged Athens, she turned the beasts of the wild against his armies, and later gave Kratos the Blade of Artemis, a weapon she had wielded against the Titans, to aid him in the conquest of Pandora's Temple.
Cronos: the Titan who ate his children
Warned that his own children would depose him, Cronos swallowed each at birth. Rhea hid Zeus, Zeus deposed him anyway, and Kratos finished him.
Lahkesis
Lahkesis was the middle Sister of Fate, the measurer who determined the length and course of every life. Loyal to Zeus, she barred Kratos from the Loom of Fate and fought him alongside her sister Atropos before being trapped within a shattered mirror.
Titans: the elder gods Zeus cast down
Born to Gaia and Ouranos, the Titans ruled the Golden Age under Cronos until Zeus buried them in Tartarus. Kratos later raised them one last time.
Zeus
Zeus was the King of Olympus and ruler of the Greek Pantheon, the youngest son of Cronos who freed his siblings, ended the Great War, and claimed the heavens. Father of Kratos, he became the great antagonist of the Greek age and fell at last to the very son he had tried to destroy.
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Eleonora
Eleonora was a Spartan temple maiden charged with the care of the interconnected temples of Laconia. Born to a family bound to that service, she tended the shrines of the gods and questioned the path her duty had denied her.
Kratos in Greek Mythology vs God of War: the Real Myth Behind the Ghost of Sparta
Kratos was a real figure in Greek myth: the god of strength, son of Pallas and Styx, and the enforcer who chained Prometheus to a rock. Here's what the old poems say about him, what Santa Monica kept for its Spartan, and where Atreus and the series' other borrowed names come from.
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