__ 
 /   od of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----\                    The Gates of Athens                     |
 \_/   (00002)   \-----------------------------------------------------------o

When you start off in this area you can speak to the women in your bed using 
the R2 button.  Be sure to jump up on the bed and "interact" with them.  Yeah.  
Anyway you can read your diary over in the corner of the room if you wish.  
Leave this place and break all the objects along the way as you go to find 
numerous red orbs.  There's a save point down at the far end of the hall.  
Continue along and open the chest to refill your magic entirely and then get 
the green orbs as well before you ascend the ladder.  You can speak to the 
statue at the front of your ship using the R2 button if you wish.  Use the 
plank leading from the right side down onto the docks.  At the end you'll 
encounter some new enemies, these are more difficult than the ones you've 
faced previously, you cannot grab them normally you must first damage them to 
the point where the circle button icon appears above their head and then you 
can use a throw to finish them off.  You're taught once again that the L1 
button is block for good reason, these things have a nasty habit of slashing 
you up, so be sure to block regularly between attacks.  Run down to the end of 
the path where you will find a huge cracked hole in the wall.  Jump through 
this to land in the water on the other side.  Jump up to the door and head 
down the hall where you'll encounter a bunch of enemies but also find a chest 
in the corner containing a Phoenix Feather.  Collect a total of six of these 
to permanently increase your magic bar.  At the end of the hall back outside 
again there's a chest with green orbs inside.  Jump up onto the crates and 
drop down to find yourself back at the beginning again.  Return to where the 
large crack in the wall was but this time jump across the gap to find a lever 
on a platform.  You can pull this lever using R2 and ride the elevator up.

At the top there's a chest containing green orbs but if you just got the one 
before coming up here leave it for now because you may nee it after.  You're 
about to encounter a new type of enemy, the minotaur.  To defeat these enemies 
first you must use normal attacks and blocks to damage it to the point where 
the circle button icon appears above its head.  If you press circle at this 
point you'll be thrust into a minigame where you have to tap the circle button 
as fast as you can to finish the beast off.  It is possible just to attack 
normally and kill it like that, but as the games notes doing it this way will 
mean that the enemy drops healing green orbs every single time.  Down at the 
end of this path is a chest to refill your magic power, and don't forget the 
healing chest you may have left prior to fighting the three beasts.  Follow 
the path along and ride the next elevator up.  You will find yourself in a 
large area guarded by a powerful enemy who fires a large spiked ball out of 
his hand.  Blocking this yields rather unfortunate results so your best bet is 
to dodge it entirely using the right analog stick to evade.  Jumping is also 
quite an effective dodging technique.  When the monster has take enough damage 
press circle to initiate the minigame where you must correctly hit a random 
button that appears on screen quickly in order to keep up with the animation 
and finish the monster off.  You'll need to fight a total of three of them in 
this area, when you've got two of them coming at you at once try letting loose 
a Poseidon's Rage between them for massive damage to both.  

After the large creatures are dead there are a couple of things to check out.  
First run to the upper right corner to find a hidden chest full of red orbs.  
You'll also note that there is a chest with green orbs near the door, and 
another one if you jump over the edge at the lower right corner.  You probably 
won't need both of them right now and since you'll be back here again make 
note of where they are but save at least one of them for later.  You should 
note however that the one near the door changes colours, press the R2 button 
while it is the colour of the orb you wish to get and it will remain that 
colour when opened.  Follow the hall up past this magic chest to reach a large 
room with crates piled up high.  Here's what you want to do, first notice that 
two of these stacks of crates actually have wooden crates holding them up at 
the bottom.  Break these two wooden crates to shorten the height of the stacks 
and reveal the exit to the room.  Don't be too hasty however.  First double 
jump onto the crate at the lower left corner.  From here jump diagonally uper 
and right to reach the central crate stack.  Now across from you there is a 
platform with a ladder and a treasure chest, resist the urge to jump there for 
now and instead jump right to grab hold of a taller crate stack.  From here 
you can see an opening in the wall with two chests inside, one refills your 
magic entirely and the other nets you another Gorgon Eye.  Jump back across 
and this time land on the stack with the ladder, inside the chest you'll find 
a whole bunch of red orbs.  Climb the ladder and start to shimmy across to the 
end of the small ledge.  When you reach the end hold left on the analog stick 
(the opposite direction you're facing) and double jump to grab hold of the 
mesh net on the nearby crate stack.  Get on top of this stack and jump left to 
reach the door, but you aren't done yet.  Jump up onto the crate opposite the 
door and then across once again to the next one where you'll find another 
chest with red orbs inside.  Now you can jump back and go through the door.

Open the chest in this room if you really need it, but not if you only "kind 
of" need it because almost guaranteed you WILL need it soon.  Approach the 
flaming door and watch the scene.  Now it's time to face off against the 
leader of the Gorgons, Medusa.  She has a couple of basic attacks, but the 
most notable is the stone gaze.  Now and then she will fire a green beam out 
and if you are caught in this beam for too long you will turn to stone.  You 
don't die instantly when turned to stone but even the slightest tap will 
shatter you and kill you, if you happen to be turned to stone throw the left 
analog stick around like crazy to get out of it.  Anyway the main thing to 
keep in mind is that you never want to jump while she is doing this attack, if 
you are turned to stone in mid-air you will shatter when you land.  Instead 
you have two options, the first is to roll around using the right analog stick 
which is a fairly effective tactic, the second works even better.  When the 
Medusa begins to use this attack simply run up to her and cast Poseidon's 
Rage.  Combo her using the square and triangle attacks as much as possible to 
keep knocking her down, that's the best way to avoid damage from her normal 
attacks and eventually the circle button icon will appear over her head.  
Press it to grab her and initiate the minigame.  What you need to do is press 
the left analog stick in the direction of the tail of the arrow you see on 
screen and rotate it in the direction shown.  Doing this correctly two times 
will have you rip off the beast's head and give you the Medusa's Gaze.  Now 
you can cycle between Poseidon's Rage and Medusa's Gaze with the D-Pad.  The 
stone beam uses up magic power but catch enemies in the beam long enough and 
they will be turned to stone, at that point you can quickly shatter them with 
a normal attack.  Hold L2 and press square to fire the beam at enemies, kill 
all of the minitaur's that appear in this room with the gaze to continue.

Head through the door that was previously blocked by Aphrodite and defeat all 
the enemies in this hallway.  There's a large ladder to climb up at the end, 
climb up this ladder to the point where you're just about at the top.  Now 
double jump backward in the opposite direction and you should land on a 
platform archway with a treasure chest on it.  Open this chest to get a stash 
of red orbs.  From here you can also jump into an opening in the left wall to 
find even more red orbs.  Return to the ladder and ascend it all the way to 
the top.  Immediately as you start moving you will find a lever in front of 
you, avoid pulling it for the moment.  Instead approach the crossbow in the 
middle and hold R2 to grab onto it.  While holding R2 hold down on the left 
analog stick as well until Kratos fires it automatically.  This reveals breaks 
a hole in the wall and reveals two chests.  Ignore it for now.  Open the chest 
with the green orbs if you need it and then save your game at the nearby save 
point.  Head back down and bit and pull the level to turn the crossbow to face 
another direction.  Before doing anything pull it a second time to make the 
crossbow facing to your left.  Go forward and fire it, this breaks a hole in 
the wall and allows you to get the chest containing another Phoenix Feather.  
Pull the lever one final time so that it faces straight up and fire to break 
down the door.  Shooting another arrow accomplishes nothing at the moment.

Follow the newly opened hallway and make a left at the fork.  Drop down to the 
bottom and defeat all the enemies here, there's a chest beside the gate with a 
Gorgon Eye inside.  Tap the R2 button while standing beside the gate to open 
it, but now you need to go back.  Turn around and climb up the ladder where 
you just came from.  At the fork you will see a ladder on the right wall 
leading up, climb this ladder now.  Outside you'll be ambushed by a bunch of 
normal enemies, just wipe them all up before you try the following.  See where 
there is a partial ladder?  Start climbing up the wall there.  Part way up the 
stack of crates on your left will end and you can actually stop and stand on 
top of them.  Drop from this stack of crates onto the red roof of the building 
on your left.  From this building you can jump straight up and land in the 
area where you broke the wall away using the crossbow and open up the chests 
to get a whole bunch of red orbs.  Drop down and head through the gate you 
opened just recently and climb up the two ladders to reach the area with the 
wall you started to climb.  This time climb up further and start making your 
way across to the right, note that you can jump sideways as well as up.  Watch 
out for all the enemies as you go, take your time and smash them to avoid 
being pulled off.  When you reach the right side climb down slowly until you 
hit ground below.  There's a thin walkway leading along the left side, follow 
it to reach a huge statue.  An R2 icon appears when you get up to it so begin 
tapping R2 as fast as you can to knock the statue over.

Beyond the statue is a chest with green orbs inside and a ladder leading down.  
Climb down the ladder and jump up onto the head of the broken statue, you can 
now jump to reach the bottom of the ladder.  Up top there are a couple of 
normal Gorgon enemies to fight which are just weaker versions of the queen 
Medusa.  Check the left side for a chest containing green orbs and then climb 
further up the ladder to reach the next level.  You can damage the two pillars 
on the left side and use them to jump on to reach the top level.  Use the 
crossbow here to fire an arrow with a rope tied to the back off to the other 
side of the area.  Walk around to the front of the crossbow and double jump to 
grab onto this rope.  It's not a sliding rope but rather a hand-over-hand rope 
for you to go across.  The triangle button allows you to do a range attacks 
while the square button does a quick attack and the circle button does an 
instant kill grab attack.  Just make your way across sticking with the circle 
button grab most of the time even though you'll take a bit of damage, just 
don't underestimate the obnoxiousness of the enemies coming from behind you 
and start spinning the left analog stick wildly if one of them grabs you.  
Drop down on the other side and open the chest to refill your health entirely 
and go down the hall to the left.  Open this door by tapping the R2 button and 
return to the crossbow.  Save your game here and then fire the crossbow in the 
direction you just came from to break open the door.  With the door opened a 
whole bunch of enemies swarm into the hall.  Rather than going up to fight 
each one individually simply keep using the crossbow and fire four arrows to 
instantly kill four minotaurs, pretty sweet.  Run to the end of the hall and 
climb up the ladder to find a red orb and green orb chest.  After that drop 
down to the bottom of the ladder and follow the path outside for a scene.