| “ | My Lord, Kratos! Another city is ready to fall! Soon all will know the glory of Sparta! | ” |
Sparta was a city-state located in the Peloponnesus, a region southwest of Athens, in southern Greece, and was home to Kratos.
During the events of God of War II, Zeus destroyed Sparta in petty revenge against Kratos for his perceived sacrilege during his dying moments. This lead the Last Spartan to the Island of Creation to seek the Sisters of Fate and change Sparta's fate. However, a misunderstanding caused him and Kratos to figh, resulting in his death in Kratos' arms as he relayed the news of Sparta's destruction. This further enraged Kratos, giving him even more motivation to kill the King of the Gods.
After going back in time and successfully forcing Zeus to retreat back to Mount Olympus following Athena's sacrifice, Kratos succeeded in preventing his father from destroying his home city but it's assumed that after Kratos killed Poseidon in God of War III, the city was destroyed anyways by the flood wrought from his demise.
The city of Sparta makes its only in-game appearance during God of War: Ghost of Sparta, where Kratos returns to his old home in search of the The Skull of Keres in Temple of Ares, but before that Kratos fights the Piraeus Lion who was freed by the Dissenter, who was loyal to the fallen God of War, Ares and despised Kratos for replacing him.
Real World History
Known for their brutal training regime, the Agoge, a militaristic society, male children were separated into the weak and strong. At the age of seven, the strong were sent off to begin their military training. The weak were sent to the mountains, to die. Sparta was also known for their great, long lasting rivalry with the city-state of Athens. Sparta fought many wars, battling many foes, such as the Persians, Athenians, and other Greek city states. Neither Philip II of Macedonia nor Alexander the Great tried to conquer Sparta, and so the Spartans were the only Greeks who didn't take part in Alexander's war against Persia.
During the Punic Wars, Sparta allied with the Romans against the Carthaginians. Yet Spartan independence ended when it was forced into the Achaean League. Then, in 146 BC, the Roman general, Lucius Mummius, conquered Greece. During the Roman rule, the Spartans were able to continue their way of life, and the city became a tourist attraction for the wealthy Roman elite who wished to view the Spartans' exotic customs.
Today, Sparta is known as Sparti.
In the God of War series
Known history
Sparta was a large city state and a highly militaristic culture, waging many wars with its Greek rivals such as Athens, aswell as having fought against the Persians in several points in history. Kratos once referred to Sparta as having been an empire, suggesting that it may have controlled territory and satellites beyond the boundaries of its city.
At one point, Ares took over the patron-ship of Sparta and its people, who lived in reverence to the God of War. For many ages, the statue of Ares stood guard on the highest plateau above the city of Sparta, keeping a watchful eye on the lands of Laconia. The Temple of Ares stood as a symbol of the War Gods presense and power in the mortal world. Zeus, the father of Ares and King of the Gods was also a figure of worship and respect among the Spartans for his rule and authority over the world.
Sparta participated in the legendary Trojan war, which has happened in the distant past. Kratos noted in the novelization that Hercules is considered a hero of Sparta, for reinstating its rightful king Tyndareus who had been overthrown and exiled before.
Raid by Ares and Athena
One of Zeus' mortal lovers Callisto birthed two boys, Kratos and his younger brother Deimos, who had a full body blood-red mark. The woman decided to depart from her village, after the rumours and slander about the mysterious father of her children became too much. The new home she would find was Sparta, where she and her sons would live their lives for the next few years. The brothers enjoyed training and preparing for their time in the Agoge together, dreaming of becoming great soldiers of Sparta.
However, fate had other plans as the Oracle had predicted the demise of the Olympian Gods by the hands of a mortal, a Marked Warrior. This prophecy had alarmed Zeus, who intended to prevent it from happening. Remembering his mortal son who now lived in Sparta, the King of the Gods ordered his children, Ares and Athena to raid the city and secure the Marked Warrior, who would be brought to the Domain of Death and kept there under the watchful eye of Thanatos, the God of Death. The two Gods of War arrived with an army of Centaurs, stomping through the city after an barrage of flaming arrows.
Kratos and Deimos were approached by Ares on his horse, Athena right behind him. The War God took Deimos in his grasp, which prompted Kratos to try to attack him, only to get punched hard in the face. Ares came closer, raising his sword for the killing blow, when his sister intervened and told him to take the Marked one and leave, after which Kratos lost his conciousness. Years later Athena would claim that she was there to save Kratos, after being confronted by the new God of War about her involvement in his brother's tragedy.
Kratos, now without his brother and his mother, was now alone in the world at the age of seven, save for his Spartan comrades in the Agoge, the place where he would fight for his very life and right to be a proper Spartan. Callisto, his mother who he believed to have disappeared, was secretly moved to Atlantis, to the Temple of Poseidon to keep the secret about Deimos' fate and relation to Zeus.
Quest for Ambrosia
Kratos thrived and exceeded in the Agoge, impressing his elders and securing himself a place in the Spartan army, where he would rise through the ranks with his valor and skill on the battlefield. High on Olympus, Ares saw great potential in the young warrior. So, when the time came for the Wager of the Gods, the God of War choose Kratos as his unwitting champion in the Quest for the fabled Ambrosia of Asclepius. the God of Healing and Medicine. Like his fellow gods, Ares inflicted the home of his chosen warrior with a plague which in his case deformed its new borns, which threatened Sparta's future demographic security, aswell as the life of Kratos' infant daughter who would have to be thrown off Mount Taygetos according to Spartan Law.
Kratos, and soon after Captain Nikos and his men went on a dangerous and costly journey to retrieve the magical elixir to save their home. They faced many creatures, the Champions of the Gods and their warriors, along with the wrath of the Gods themselves in the form of Poseidon's Hippocampi and Hades' fire storm, which claimed the lifes of Captain Nikos and a number of his men. Finally, after defeating the Kerosians led by Pothia, and Kratos personally killing Cereyon, the way to the Ambrosia was clear. However, the Barbarians, led by their Prince Alrik had been preserving their strenght and numbers, intending to let the Spartans take care of the opposition, observe their tactics and strike them at last, which is what they did.
The Spartans stood their ground, however once the Arms of Hades joined on the side of the Barbarians, it became a hopeless battle. Kratos was in a personal fight with Alrik and was forced to make a cold choice to abandon his comrades to persue the Barbarian Prince who had taken the Ambrosia and was intending to depart on a Roc he had power over. The Spartans would all die by the Arms of Hades, their corpses and souls being condemned to remain in that place where they died, full of hate and rage towards the one who abandoned them.
Kratos meanwhile, engaged Alrik in a fierce aerial battle, both of them inflicting fatal wounds on eachother, however both of them temporarily blessed by the Ambrosia which was spilled over them during the struggle. Kratos was able to gain the head of Danaus, and with it the power to command the Rocs to turn on Alrik, devouring him until his regenerative blessing wears off. Upon his return to Sparta with the Ambrosia, the King welcomed Kratos as a hero and bestowed on him the rank of Captain. This would be the start of Kratos' brilliant military career, starting off with merely fifty men, but soon rising to the thousends.
However, this would not be the end of Alrik's story, as the Champion of Hades was healed and put on a fateful path of revenge towards Kratos and Sparta, by the God of the Underworld who felt enraged at Ares winning the wager yet again.
Following Kratos
Kratos, now the youngest and boldest Captain in the Spartan Army quickly became a legendary figure among his comrades, his numbers rising with every victory. Spartans, both young and old prided themselves for the honour of getting to serve under Kratos. One day, it was time to face the Barbarians to the east, led by their new King Alrik. Kratos, who was starting to get increasingly self-assured and careless due to his reputation and many victories, made a neglectful decision to enter the battle without first sending scouts to check on the enemies strenght and numbers, which turned out to be in the thousends.
The training and discipline of the Spartans made little difference, as the ferocity and numbers of the Barbarians was overwhelming. The Spartans were loosing the battle and their young Captain was watching his best men die while fighting besides him. Kratos was personally defeated by Alrik, years after their first battle for the Ambrosia. To save himself, the remnants of his men and his home from the immense Barbarian army, Kratos did the unthinkable and called out to the Heavens, for Ares to destroy his enemies in exchange for his life. The God of War answered the call, having his own plans for Kratos. He would honour Kratos' demand and bestow upon him the Blades of Chaos, making him his earthly servant.
Sparta, with their General Kratos as Ares' direct servant on Earth rose to even greater devotion to the God of War. The armies of Sparta joined Kratos' conquests in the name of their God Ares, who has turned them invincible on their relentless march through Greece. Oppossing armies quaked in fear of the Fist of Ares and his Spartans taking the field against them. All the world trembled before the battle cry of Sparta when Kratos stood at their head. Total death, no quarter, no mercy and no prisoners was the outcome of any battle. The carnage and bloodshed became so great that even Zeus, high above on Olympus often considered to strike Kratos dead from the Heavens for his hubris and brutality against innocents.
However, the bloody march of Sparta through Greece would abruptly end after the incident at Athena's small village temple, where Kratos had killed his family unknowingly in a cruel trick, orchestrated by the God of War. As he became the Ghost of Sparta, wearing the ashes of his loved ones on his skin, and having broken his oath to the God who saved his life, Kratos had lost his followers and became a lone warrior, a figure of fear and terror aswell as a cautionary tale of the price for hubris and bloodlust.
Pride of Sparta
A decade later, Kratos had slain Ares with the power of Pandora's Box. Kratos, a son of Sparta, was welcomed by Zeus among the rulers of Olympus, as the new God of War. The vast majority of Spartans felt very proud and glad about the fact that one of their own was now walking with the Gods, and so Kratos became the prime deity for the Spartan people. While the Spartans worshipped Ares and did not resent him, as his reign was all they knew, his reign was rather ruthless. Now, with Kratos they felt that their new patron god would put greater consideration on the interests of the city state and its citizens. It was not long before the statues and symbols of Ares were torn down across Sparta, and replaced with counterparts in honour of Kratos.
However, some faithful followers of Ares remained and rejected Kratos as an unworthy usurper. A group of the most staunch loyalists, called the Disciples of Ares had the goal to revive their fallen god with the Ambrosia of Asclepius, which prompted Kratos to depart once more to the Tree of Life in order to destroy it and deny his hated former master the chance at a second life.
Sparta appeared in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, as Kratos travelled to Sparta through the mountains of Aroania, and hitched a ride from (a rather unwilling) Erinys, daughter of Thanatos. There, he went to the Temple of Ares, and found a ghost, in the image of his younger self. After defeating the ghost of his younger self and obtaining the Skull of Keres, Kratos resolved to go to Atlantis once again to find his brother, Deimos. Sparta also houses a brothel where the men and soldiers can choose to have intercourse with any of the women.
Conquering Greece
In the aftermath of Deimos' death, Kratos lashes out against the Gods of Olympus by targeting their city states. The God of War orders Sparta to conquer Greece and kill every man, woman and child who refused to be subjugated, all to spite the Gods and Zeus, whom he resented for not banishing his visions after his defeat of Ares, which he considered a betrayal. The city of Rhodes was the last standing city in Greece, with Olympus being on the edge and in outrage, awaiting their King Zeus to act against this insolence. For Kratos, waging war, overseeing the endless carnage was the only way to distract himself from the everpresent visions of his past failures. The countless deaths in his wake did not bother him as they were not Spartan, but lesser, weaker men. The armies of Sparta became invincible, not just due to their dedication and training - but also the favour of the God of War, in whose honor they fought.
Rhodes seemed poised to fall to the Spartan onslaught, just as the rest of Greece already did when Kratos descended from Olympus to deal the final blow to the besieged city. However, the Siege of Rhodes would turn out to be the high point of Sparta's conquest, as Zeus intervened personally and eventually wiped out the Spartan invasion army after impaling Kratos with the Blade of Olympus and leaving him to die.
Destruction by Zeus
In the desolation and sour mood in the entirety of Greece, in the aftermath of Sparta's bloody march, many mortals in the still rebuilding Athens and presumably other cities began building small, modest shrines and places of worship for Gaia and the Titans, seemingly feeling the unease on Olympus and how the King of the Gods couldnt care less about them.
Athena takes notice of this and finds it strange, given how the mortals cannot possibly understand anything about the old and defeated Titans. However, she decides to keep it to herself in fear of her fathers wrath falling upon the Athenian people. Unintentionally, during a heated discussion with Zeus she lets it slip, but without specifically mentioning Athens, which turned out to be fortunate for the already suffering city, as the King of the Gods lost all pretense of control and destroyed Sparta to punish Kratos for all his insolence, the newest one being allying himself with the Titans, who the son of Cronos still hated with immeasurable fury.
The King of the Gods, as large if not larger than Kratos and Ares during their previous rampages in the mortal world, ravaged across Sparta, stomping and throwing buildings full of women und children seeking shelter, burning thousends of people to death with his lightning strikes across the city. After he was finished, Zeus returned to Olympus. His daughter Athena expressed outrage at what he did, however Zeus told her to keep a civil tone and that he merely did what was necessarry. "Kratos had destroyed the other cities. I destroyed Sparta."
Aftermath
One notable character from Sparta is the Last Spartan. The dutiful warrior is loyal to Kratos, his God and was a part of his earlier conquest throughout Greece. Before that he made an appearence during God of War: Ghost of Sparta. During Spartas destruction, he was trapped and immobilized from the start, witnessing the horrific scenes before Zeus drifted off to more distant sections of the city. In the aftermath, he was grabbed by a giant eagle and brought to the inner sanctums of the Temple of the Fates, presumably to face Kratos and let him know what happened to his beloved home city.
During a fight with Kratos, in which his true identity was hidden from the former god, he gets mortally wounded. In his dying breath, the Spartan informs Kratos of Sparta's destruction at the hands of Zeus. The people cried out for their god to save them, but he did not come. Hearing this greatly demoralized Kratos, seeing that now after already losing a great part of his army in Rhodes, now the entire city is destroyed because of his conflict with Zeus and the Gods. The Ghost of Sparta demands the King of the Gods to come down to earth right now and face him, when the Kraken appears and takes him in a crushing grip.
Kratos blacks out and finds himself in a field, overlooking the burning inferno that is Sparta. Gaia, in the form of his deceased wife appears and convinces the White Warrior to continue with promises of victory and eternal torment should he relent. The Earth Mother whispered that another Great War is about to begin, as she gathered the very fires that burned Sparta to ashes and imbued them into Kratos, enflaming his Rage and will to fight.
When later facing Zeus on the Summit of Sacrifice after travelling back through time, Kratos tells the Skyfather that he will not let him destroy Sparta. However, after killing Poseidon, which caused a massive flood over all of Greece, Kratos most likely, although unintentionally, wiped out all of Sparta but some of its inhabitants may have survived the flooding. It is possible those survivors were killed by the later plagues of Kratos killing the gods.
After Sparta's destruction, Kratos left Greece to reside in Midgard. The lessons learned during his Spartan life stayed with Kratos throughout his Norse journey.
Trivia
- Sparta was the name of the wife of Lacedaemon, who named the city after her as a tribute. He was also a son of Zeus and therefore a half-brother of Kratos.
- It seems that Sparta is held in high regard, even by the divine beings such as the Gods and the Titans. This can be seen by Kratos is occasionally being called "Spartan". This also extends to gods and other beings from foreign lands like the Nine Realms as Týr also calls Kratos "Spartan" when they meet in Valhalla.
- In God of War: Ghost of Sparta, when Kratos arrives in Sparta all attack options are off and he merely walks through the city. This is most likely due to Sparta being his home.
- This makes Sparta the only city in which Kratos can't kill civilians for green orbs.
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