Kratos (mythology)
Kratos | |
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Personification of Strength | |
Styx (mother) | |
Siblings | Nike, Bia, and Zelus |
Equivalents | |
Roman equivalent | Potestas |
Part of a series on |
Ancient Greek religion |
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In
Kratos is characterized as brutal and merciless, repeatedly mocking both Hephaestus and Prometheus and advocating for the use of unnecessary violence. He defends Zeus' oppressive rule and predicts that Prometheus will never escape his bonds. In Aeschylus' depictions and adaptations of the binding of Prometheus.
In the preface to Fabulae by Gaius Julius Hyginus, Kratos is given the Roman name Potestas.[7]
Ancient Greek literature and art
Theogony
Kratos and his siblings are first mentioned in the Theogony, which was composed by the Boeotian poet Hesiod in the late eighth or early seventh century BC.[8][9][10] Hesiod states: "And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bore Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer."[11] Here Kratos is merely listed as a deified abstraction with little development or explanation.[8] Hesiod goes on to explain that the reason why the children of Styx were allowed to dwell with Zeus was because Zeus had decreed after the Titanomachy that all those who had not held offices under Kronos would be given positions in his regime.[11][9] Because Styx came to Zeus first, along with her children, Zeus honored them as among the highest members of his new regime.[11][9] According to Diana Burton, Styx, Zelos, Nike, Kratos, and Bia's voluntary change in allegiance represents the certainty of Zeus' victory over the Titans.[10] While the goddesses Dike ("Justice"), Eunomia ("Good Law"), and Eirene ("Peace") represent the benefits of Zeus' reign, Kratos and his siblings represent the work needed to build that regime.[10]
Prometheus Bound
In the opening scene of the tragedy Prometheus Bound, which is traditionally attributed to Aeschylus, Kratos and his sister Bia are taking Prometheus to a remote location in the Scythian wilderness, where he will be chained to a rocky outcropping.[1][14][15] The order to do this was given by Zeus himself[1][14][15] and Kratos and Bia are portrayed as the embodiment of Zeus' new regime.[8][13] The presence of Kratos and Bia but absence of Nike and Zelos indicates the play's tyrannical portrayal of Zeus, since Kratos and Bia represent the more tyrannical aspects of authority.[16] Kratos in particular represents what Ian Ruffell calls "the kind of uncomplicated thug for whom despotic regimes offer countless job opportunities."[8] He enforces the power of Zeus through physical brutality and pitilessness.[8][13] Bia, though present in the scene, does not have any lines; only Kratos speaks.[17][18]
Kratos coerces the mild-mannered blacksmith god
Kratos repeatedly orders Hephaestus to use more violence than necessary to inflict as much pain as possible against Prometheus.[8][12] First he orders Hephaestus to nail Prometheus' hands to the rock.[21] Then he orders him to drive a steel wedge through his chest.[21] Finally, he orders him to tie Prometheus' legs to immobilize him.[21] Hephaestus criticizes Kratos, telling him that his speech is as ugly as his physical appearance.[22][8] Kratos responds by telling him, "Be soft. Do not throw in my face my 'willfulness' and 'roughness of temper'."[22][8] Once Prometheus has been bound, Hephaestus, Bia, and Kratos exit offstage, with Kratos being the last one to leave.[23] Just before his exeunt, Kratos mocks Prometheus, saying that he will never escape from his shackles[12] and that he does not deserve his name.[12] (Prometheus means "forethought" in Greek.[12]) According to Robert Holmes Beck, Aeschylus' depiction of the harsh punishment of Prometheus was intended as an example of how wrongdoers must be punished to deter others from transgressing.[17] In this interpretation, Kratos' cruelty is not intended to be viewed as excessive, but rather as the proper enforcement of justice.[17]
Other references
In Aeschylus'
Depictions of Kratos and Bia in
In modern culture
In 1772, Thomas Morell published his English translation of Prometheus Bound as Prometheus in Chains, making the work widely available to the British public for the first time.[39] Four years afterwards, the abolitionist Richard Potter published a complete English translation of all Aeschylus' tragedies.[39] The scene from Prometheus Bound in which Hephaestus chains Prometheus to a mountainside with the aid of Kratos and Bia captured the imagination of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Romantics[40] and became a lens through which they analyzed questions of the relationships between revolution and tyranny, slavery and freedom, and war and peace.[40]
Richard Porson's 1795 translation of Prometheus Bound was illustrated with drawings by John Flaxman showing the famous binding scene.[39] Between 1798 and 1799, George Romney produced a series of chalk drawings of scenes from Prometheus Bound, including the binding scene with Kratos and Bia.[39] In both Flaxman and Romney's illustrations, Kratos and Bia are shown together in symmetry.[39] In 1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley adapted the myth of Prometheus for his own play Prometheus Unbound.[41]
In
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d Ruffell 2012, p. 25.
- ^ a b c Martin 2016, p. 163.
- ^ a b Lowe 2009, p. 82.
- Perseus Project.
- ^ Gantz, pp. 25–26 (the translations given here are Gantz's); Hesiod, Theogony 383–385; Apollodorus 1.2.4
- ^ Gantz, p. 158; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound, 1 ff.
- ^ "CRATUS (Kratos) - Greek God of Strength & Power (Roman Potestas)". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ruffell 2012, p. 30.
- ^ a b c Sammons 2018, p. 131.
- ^ a b c Burton 2011, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Hesiod, Theogony lines 383–387, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White
- ^ a b c d e f Allen 2000, p. 294.
- ^ a b c Beck 1975, pp. 126–127.
- ^ a b Pearson 1997, p. 187.
- ^ a b c Hard 2004, p. 95.
- ^ Burton 2011, pp. 58–59.
- ^ a b c Beck 1975, p. 127.
- ^ Spindler 2015, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b Ruffell 2012, p. 31.
- ^ Ruffell 2012, pp. 30–31.
- ^ a b c Spindler 2015, p. 24.
- ^ a b Boegehold 1999, p. 54.
- ^ Spindler 2015, p. 27.
- Libation Bearers, lines 244–245.
- ^ Marshall 2017, p. 40.
- ^ Plato, Protagoras 321a
- ^ Ruffell 2012, p. 74.
- ^ Huffman 2007, p. 82.
- ^ Huffman 2007, pp. 81–83.
- ^ a b Smith 2011, p. 18.
- ^ Burton 2011, p. 59.
- ^ Spindler 2015, p. 32.
- ^ a b Shapiro 1994, pp. 81–82.
- ^ "Monument #8449". weblimc.org. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
- ^ "5448, ATHENIAN, BASEL, PRIVATE, H. CAHN, HC541". www.carc.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
- ^ Shapiro 1994, p. 81.
- ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library 1.2
- ^ Van Kooy 2016, pp. 166–167.
- ^ a b c d e f Van Kooy 2016, p. 166.
- ^ a b Van Kooy 2016, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Van Kooy 2016, p. 165.
- ^ Bertagnolli 2016, p. 238.
- ^ a b Bertagnolli 2016, p. 246.
- ^ a b c d Chmielewski 2016, p. 186.
- ^ a b Lowe 2009, pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b c d e Quinio et al., 2010.
- ^ Chmielewski 2016, pp. 186–187.
- ^ Chmielewski 2016, pp. 185–186.
Bibliography
- Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. Vol 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. 1926. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Allen, Danielle S. (2000), The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-05869-6
- Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Beck, Robert Holmes (1975), Aeschylus: Playwright Educator, The Hague, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, ISBN 978-94-011-8818-0
- Bertagnolli, Paul (2016) [2007], Prometheus in Music: Representations of the Myth in the Romantic Era, New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge, ISBN 978-07-546-5468-1
- Boegehold, Alan L. (1999), When a Gesture was Expected: A Selection of Examples from Archaic and Classical Greek Literature, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-00263-7
- Burton, Diana (2011), "Chapter Four: Nike, Dike and Zeus at Olympia", in McWilliam, Janette; Puttock, Sonia; Stevenson, Tom; Taraporewalla, Rashna (eds.), The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4438-2921-2
- Chmielewski, Sylwia (2016), "C://Hercules in Computer Games/A Heroic Evolution", in Dominas, Konrad; Wesołowska, Elżbieta; Trocha, Bogdan (eds.), Antiquity in Popular Literature and Culture, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 177–192, ISBN 978-1-4438-9024-3
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3(Vol. 2).
- Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's Handbook of Greek Mythology, New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-44633-1
- Huffman, Carl (2007), "Philolaus and the Central Fire", in Stern-Gilette, Suzanne; Corrigan, Kevin (eds.), Reading Ancient Texts: Presocratics and Plato: Essays in Honour of Denis O'Brien, Leiden, The Netherlands and Boston, Massachusetts: Brill, pp. 57–96, ISBN 978-90-04-16509-0
- Lowe, Dunstan (2009), "Playing with Antiquity: Videogame Receptions of the Classical World", in Lowe, Dunstan; Shahabudin, Kim (eds.), Classics For All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 64–90, ISBN 978-1-4438-0120-1
- Marshall, C. W. (2017), Aeschylus: Libation Bearers, Bloomsbury Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy, New York City, New York and London, England: Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN 978-1-4742-5508-0
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- Pearson, Birger A. (1997), "Philanthropy in the Greco-Roman World and in Early Christianity", The Emergence of the Christian Religion: Essays on Early Christianity, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, ISBN 978-1-62032-637-4
- Quinio, Charles; Weller, Peter; Iovanovici, Zoran; Lape, Susan; Purves, Alex; Madden, John; Asmussen, Stig (2010), God of War: Unearthing the Legend (Documentary), Los Angeles, California: Santa Monica Studio, event occurs at 00:35:33
- Ruffell, Ian (2012), Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy, London, England: Bristol Classical Press, ISBN 978-0-7156-3476-9
- Sammons, Benjamin (2018), "Hesiod's Theogony and the Structures of Poetry", in Loney, Alexander C.; Scully, Stephen (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hesiod, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-090536-1
- Shapiro, H. A. (1994), Myth Into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece, New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-41503-0
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- Spindler, Alexander J. (2015), "The Art of the Stage Machinist: A Dramatic Reconstruction of Aeschylus' Linear Tragedy, Prometheus Bound", Honors Bachelor of Arts, Paper 3, Cincinnati, Ohio
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