Olympians: the gods Kratos killed off

The Olympians, more commonly called the Gods of Olympus, were the third and final generation of gods to rule over Greece. Led by Zeus, son of the Titan King Cronos, they overthrew the Titans and made themselves masters of all mortals from their seat atop Mount Olympus. First the allies of Kratos and then his bitterest enemies, they were slain almost to the last across his long campaign of vengeance. (God of War (2005); God of War II; God of War III)

The third generation of gods#

The Olympians were the last of three generations of gods to hold dominion over Greece, succeeding the Titans who had ruled before them. Their rise began with Zeus, the son of the Titan King Cronos. Fearing the loss of his power, Cronos had devoured his children one by one, but Zeus was hidden away and grew to adulthood in secret, then returned to free his siblings and make war upon the elder gods. (God of War II; Theogony)

That war was the Titanomachy, a struggle that raged for ten years before the younger gods prevailed. With the Titans cast down, the victors built their palaces atop Mount Olympus and set themselves over all mortals as the new rulers of Greece. (Theogony)

The rule of Olympus#

In the aftermath of their victory, Zeus and his two brothers agreed to divide the cosmos and rule together. Zeus took the heavens and reigned as King of the Gods; Poseidon was given lordship over the sea; and Hades became lord of the Underworld, while the earth lay open to all three. Around them gathered the other great deities of Olympus, among them Athena, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus and Aphrodite, worshipped by the mortals of Greece as the principal powers of the world. From their mountain they governed the affairs of gods and men alike for ages. (Iliad; God of War III)

Allies and enemies of Kratos#

For a time the Olympians were the patrons of Kratos. In his first great war they stood as his allies, aiding the Spartan in his quest to destroy Ares, and it was with their sanction that he became the new God of War. That alliance did not hold. When Zeus turned against him and betrayed him, the gods of Olympus became Kratos' enemies, and from that point on they were the chief antagonists of the remainder of his Greek saga. (God of War (2005); God of War II)

What followed was the slow annihilation of their kind. Across his years of service and vengeance Kratos slew the Olympians one after another, the greater number of them falling in his war against Zeus. The deaths of so many gods tore Greece apart, unleashing chaos that destroyed nearly all the mortal world until almost nothing remained. (God of War III)

The fall and the few survivors#

By the end of Kratos' war almost the whole pantheon lay dead. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Helios and Hercules were among those slain, alongside many more. Only a handful endured. Athena survived, having returned after ascending to a higher existence when she sacrificed herself to save Zeus, a selfless act all but unheard of among the gods. (God of War II; God of War III)

Though the gods of Olympus were gone, Kratos chose to return the power of Hope he carried to all of Greece, so that the surviving mortals might sustain themselves and rebuild their land without the gods who had ruled them. Having survived his own attempt to take his life, Kratos departed Greece to seek a new home far from the ruin of Olympus, while Athena, denied the power she had wanted for herself, left him there. (God of War III; God of War (2018))