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The following is a list of monsters found in God of War. Because all of the monsters in the game are liberally interpreted from Greek (and sometimes European) mythology, a chart is provided to compare and contrast the game's depictions of the monsters vs. traditional depictions.

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You might want to skip down to the next heading if you do not want facts about the game's storyline or plot revealed to you.

Monster God of War Version Traditional Depiction Notes
Undead Legionnaire Ares' army of the undead. Dressed in the armor of ancient Greek warriors, they appear as demonic skeletons with bits of decaying flesh clinging to their bones. A frequently encountered enemy, they sometimes come in clusters and are quite varied; early on they wear little armor and wield short swords, but as the game progresses, they begin to appear wielding larger swords and wearing heavier armor, and eventually end up wielding massive shields and sycthes. n/a The name of this enemy appears to be the result of some minor confusion on the creators' behalf. Legionnaires were in fact Roman soldiers, not Greek; the Greek equivalent were called Hoplites. The confusion seems to have arisen from the similarity in uniform between Greek Hoplites and Roman Centurions, the commanders of the Roman Legionnaires.
Undead Archers A unique variety of Undead Legionnaires, they engage Kratos in combat by attacking him from afar with flaming arrows that explode on impact, and carry no swords, shields, or other melee equipment. They usually appear either in pairs or in groups. Though their arrows are strong, and Kratos can easily be killed in a barrage of them, the archers are among the physically weakest of the legionnaires when engaged in hand-to-hand combat. n/a
Minotaurs A species of anthropomorphic bulls, appearing to be about eight feet (2.6m) tall. They walk on their hind legs and carry a variety of massive axes. Over the course of the game, the Minotaurs Kratos encounters become larger, more powerful, and more heavily armored and well armed. Kratos can kill them by thrusting a sword in their open mouths and out the back of their heads. Kratos kills the larger minotaurs by thrusting his dual blades into the minotaur's pectoral muscles and pulling at the minotaur's chest until he impales it upon its own sword. Meaning "Bull of Minos," Minotaur was the name (sometimes used as a proper name but most often as a designation, preceded by "The") for the step-son of Minos, ruler of Crete. Driven mad by Poseidon as a punishment for her husband's refusal to sacrifice a bull in his honor, Minos' wife, Pasiphaë, had intercourse with the bull and gave birth to the Minotaur. The Minotaur had the head and legs of a bull but the torso of a man. It possessed an unquenchable hunger for human flesh and had to be kept locked away in a massive underground maze, where ritual sacrifices of virginal men and women were performed every seven years until Theseus ventured into the maze and killed the beast.
Cyclopes Squat giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. They resemble the stereotypical depiction of cave men. They attack Kratos either with their fists or with giant clubbed weapons. A race of primordial giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads.
Harpies Monsters with the heads of bald, deformed women, the bodies of bats, and the tails of snakes. They usually appear in large groups to attack Kratos. Individually weak, they can easily overpower Kratos as part of a group attack. In addition to biting and slashing Kratos with their fangs and talons, they can cause their own bodies to start on fire and dive bomb Kratos. Three sisters--Aello, Celaeno and Ocypete—with the heads of adult women and the bodies of birds. They claimed evil souls whose fate it was to suffer eternal torment in Tartarus rather than while away in Hades, and escorted them to their final damnation. The harpies also appeared in Greek Myth as agents of vengeance sent by Zeus to punish transgressors.
Wraiths The vengeful ghosts of those who died in combat opposing Ares; utterly consumed by the rage in which they died, they now attack any living thing that comes near them. They appear as eyeless, emaciated humans with decaying flesh. Instead of legs, their waists terminate in clouds of black smoke from which they float. They can collapse themselves into this smoke and float around beneath the earth, exploding up from beneath Kratos' feet to attack him. Spirits of the vengeful dead; occasionally used interchangeably with ghost or spectre. Most often they return to seek a specific vengeance, although portrayls similar to their God of War appearance--attacking any living thing out of an undirected rage--are not uncommon. Derived from European Pagan myth as opposed to Greek myth.
Gorgons Giant, green, lizard-like creatures (about 6 feet/2m tall) with the heads, arms, and breasts of women and the bodies of snakes; instead of hair, their heads are covered by masses of writhing asps. They emit beams of energy from their eyes which can turn living things to stone. Depictions in Classical Greek mythology are varied; Homer only mentions a single, nameless Gorgon, whereas other accounts place the number at three--Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa--whereas still other accounts specify Medusa as "Queen of the Gorgons," implying them to be an entire species of monster. Some accounts identified them as residing in Ancient Libya. Early legend identifies them as having gold wings, brass claws, and the tusks of boars; later accounts depict them as more human, with the bodies of women and the tails of snakes. Some accounts identify Medusa as the only Gorgon with asps instead of hair, while others claim that all Gorgons possess this trait. The single unifying feature of the Gorgons throughout all myth is that their gaze turns men to stone. In the game's original design, the gorgons had visibly erect nipples, in addition to writhing, leg-like tentacles attached to the base of their tails. The tentacles were removed because the programmers thought it would be too difficult to animate the writhing tentacles in large battle sequences; the nipples were apparently removed for ratings purposes.
Sirens Creatures which resemble deformed women with long bangs obscuring their monstrous faces. Dressed in flowing white tunics, they float around the Desert of Time, singing songs to lure treasure hunters to them, and then killing said treasure hunters. Their death shrieks emit sonic waves which reveal and open the path to Pandora's Temple. Another group of Sirens later attacks Kratos at the temple proper. A group of women who lived on a craggy island in the ocean and sang songs so beautiful that no sailor could resist turning his ship in their direction; the sirens would continue to sing to lure the sailor closer and closer until his ship hit their island, sinking it and killing all on board. The sirens are alternatingly presented in myth as either being extremely beautiful women, mermaids, or having a variety of appearances based on birds--small birds with women's faces, giant sparrows with women's breasts and legs, large birds with lion's manes, and women with bird legs are all common depctions.
Satyrs Giant, anthropomorphic goats (roughly 6-7 feet/2-2.3m) that walk about on their hind legs. Skilled warriors, they wear heavy armor and wield giant ornate staves with large blades on either end, which they either use as axes or to attack with spinning motions. They are the most skilled enemies in the game in terms of hand-to-hand combat, and the most capable of putting up a sustained defense against Kratos' attacks. A race of creatures who were human from the head to the waist, but with the legs of a goat and the tail of a horse; exceptionally, they possessed human penises, which were usually depicted as being large and in a perpetual state of erection. Never depicted as being physically antagonistic or barbaric, satyrs were avowed hedonists who lived for the sole purpose of pursuing physical pleasure. They were often depicted in Greek art drinking wine (with goblets balanced on their erect penises) or engaged in copulation with women and/or teenage boys, in keeping with the Greek practice of socialized pederasty in Ancient Greece.
Centaurs Servants of Hades, they only appear in the section of Pandora's temple built to honor him, and in the pits of Hades itself. They are half human, half horse; their human half is comprised of a demonic, armored man from the head to the waist. The waist transitions into a horse's body, the human half of the centaur taking place of the horse's head and neck. They wield swords, spears and sometimes have bows and arrows which they shoot as they circle around you. A race of warlike creatures quite similar to their God of War depiction, albeit less demonic in appearance and unarmored. The major departure is that whereas the God of War centaurs predominantly wield edged weapons, the Centaurs were traditionally depicted as being skilled archers.
Cerberi Giant, three-headed demonic dogs/wolves (apparently somewhere around 8-10 feet/2.6-3.2m tall) that breathe fire. They are the most physically powerful enemy that Kratos faces. They can also spawn Hell Hounds, which rapidly mature into Cerberi. Cerberus was a giant, demonic dog, that guarded the gates of Hades, preventing the living from entering and the dead from leaving him. Defeating Cerberus in combat or otherwise taming him was an epic feat, featured frequently in various myths and attributed to a variety of heroes and demi-gods.
Cerberi Litter Tiny, puppy-like demonic dogs that breathe fire and are capable of curling themselves into a ball, engulfing themselves in fire, and lunging at an enemy. Left unmolested, they rapidly mature into Cerberi. n/a

Bosses[edit]

Monster God of War Version Traditional Depiction Notes
The Hydra A massive sea serpent roughly the size of a small island, with innumerable heads; one head is significantly larger than the rest and sits central on the serpent's body, directing the movements of the other heads. As the game's main narrative begins, Kratos has been assigned by Poseidon, god of the sea, to kill the beast, which has been challenging his sovereignty by destroying ships and killing sailors. Kratos kills it by impaling the dominant head to the mast of a ship; when the main head dies, the rest follow, bursting open in grisly fashion. The Lernaean Hydra was a poison-breathing creature that dwelt in the swamps at the former Lake of Lerna. It possessed so many heads that they were impossible to count, and when one head was severed, two more grew back in its place. The creature was eventually slain by Hercules, who has his nephew, Iolaus, use a torch to cauterize the Hydra's wounds every time Hercules slashed it, preventing any more heads from growing back. The hydra is varyingly depicted as a many-headed snake, a sea serpent similar to God of War's depiction, or a legged, quadrapedal reptile. After Kratos impales the Hydra's dominant head, the other heads are depicted as suffering what appear to be cerebral hemorrhages and exploding. However, if the player directs Kratos back to the beginning of the level, pre-rendered animation depicts one of the Hydra's heads still alive and attacking sailors.

At the end of the game, Kratos' throne is mounted on the Hydra's severed dominant head.

Medusa The Queen of the Gorgons, Medusa is a roughly six foot tall (2 metre) monster with the head, arms, and breasts of a woman, and the tail of a snake; in place of hair she has a mass of writhing asps. Her skin is purple and her eyes glow, occasionally emitting a wave of green and white light that turns everything in its path to stone. Aphrodite tasks Kratos with killing Medusa and bringing her Medusa's head as a sacrifice. After offering Medusa's head as a sacrifice to Aphrodite, Aphrodite allows Kratos to keep the head to use its power to turn things to stone. Medusa was once a beautiful woman who was transformed into a Gorgon for defiling Athena's temple by having sex in it with Poseidon. She was pregnant by Poseidon when she was beheaded by Perseus; upon her death, her unborn children--Pegasus and Chrysaor—crawled out of her neck stump. Her physical depiction here is relatively close to her classical portrayals, save the purple skin tone. Medusa's purple hue is likely an ode to Clash of the Titans, in which she was depicted with scaly, purple flesh; her entire design is an apparent homage. Further evidence of this is that it is the goddess Aphrodite that demands her head as a sacrifice; in Clash of the Titans, it was Aphrodite, not Athena, who transformed Medusa into a gorgon. In the supplemental features on the game disc, Clash of the Titans is mentioned by the game's creators as an overall influence.
Guardian of Pandora's Box (Giant Minotaur) A roughly 20 foot (6.6 metre) tall, skeletal minotaur wearing nearly impenetrable armor. It guards Pandora's Box in the segment of the Temple of Pandora dedicated to Hades. Judging by the fact that a ballista is present in the Guardian's chamber, it was apparently placed there as a final test to anyone who had made it that far through the temple in an attempt to claim Pandora's Box. Kratos kills it by first chipping away its armor and then firing the ballista at it, impaling it to a door; in its death throes, the beast's hoof smashes open a sealed door, allowing Kratos to procede. n/a The Guardian's corpse appears at the end of the game, mounted as a trophy in Kratos' throne room.
Doppelgängers Evil clones of Kratos, they have a purplish-grayish tint to their flesh. Ares manifests them in a cosmic arena resembling the temple where he accidentally murdered his family; in the arena are a pair of clones of his wife and child, whom Kratos must protect from the Doppelgängers. They possess all of Kratos' own skills and weaponry, and are nearly as powerful as him in one-on-one combat, a problem compounded by the fact that they attack in a continuous swarm of dozens. Eventually, Kratos kills all of them, mocking Ares, who responds by stripping Kratos of all his powers and killing the clones of Kratos' family, forcing him to relive their deaths. Virtually every culture has some concept of the doppelgänger, a person's "bad twin"; they are almost universally evil, and often somehow precipitate death or misfortune of the person they shadow. The depictions of the Doppelgängers in God of War seem to mirror the German concept (in which doppelgängers precipitate death and try to cause their "shadow" mental anguish) and the Japanese concept (which states that each person possesses both attributes of holiness and evil, with a person's doppelgänger acting as a physical manifestation of their own evil attributes).

Uniquely, if Kratos' family dies during the fight with the doppelgängers, a cut scene plays depicting Kratos falling to his knees in defeat and being dismembered by the surviving doppelgängers.

Ares Is the God of War and Bloodlust, Ares appears as a medium height, buffed-up man, with flowing hair and an Amish style beard made of fire. He wears heavy armor, and spends most of the game incarnated in a giant form. He is the son of Zeus and Hera and the half-brother of Athena. Years ago, Kratos pledged his allegiance to Ares on the battlefield, effectively selling his soul; Ares took advantage of the situation and began molding Kratos into a vehicle of death and destruction to satisfy his own unquenchable bloodlust. When Ares tricked Kratos into murdering his own family, though, Kratos betrayed him and offered his services to Athena if she would help him reclaim his soul and erase the memories of his evil deeds. At the onset of the game, Ares is laying siege to Athens, slaughtering its inhabitants and wrecking its architecture to spite Athena. Though he kills Kratos once, Kratos climbs out of Hades and uses Pandora's Box to engage him in combat. Kratos kills him by impaling him with a giant concrete sword that had once been used as decorum on a statue at Athena's temple. By killing Ares, Kratos thus inherits the position of God of War. Ares' depiction is radically different from his classical portrayal. Rather than being aggressively malevolent as depicted here, Ares was rather amoral; his identification as the God of War seems to come not so much out of his persona but as his position as the patron god of the warlike Sparta. Ares' personality in mythology was that of a womanizer; he had nine known lovers, including Aphrodite, and nearly two dozen children. Ares' corpse appears at the end of the game, mounted as a trophy in Kratos' throne room, strangely having a scary grin on his face for an unknown reason.