Keleas

"You think I want to be here? I'd rather be in Sparta, fighting or fucking."

―Keleas giving a speech to the helots, 429 BCE

Keleas (died 429 BCE) was a Spartan soldier who served as a member of the krypteia, an elite unit of the city-state's military.

Biography

In 429 BCE, Keleas and two others among his brethren "went rogue", according to King Pausanias. While before they had helped to upkeep the peace between Spartans and the enslaved helots, Keleas and his brethren had become brutal, killing helots without mercy or reason and leaving corpses to rot in the streets, as well as stealing livestock. Because of all this, Pausanias charged the misthios Kassandra with getting rid of the rogue krypteia.

Described by Pausanias as elusive yet loudest of the three rogue krypteia, Kassandra found Keleas speaking to helots in the village of Krokeai, and slew him.

Trivia

• Kassandra may inspire the helots to revolt by talking to a woman in the crowd and thus interacting with Keleas. Kassandra still has to kill Keleas for the quest to progress.
• The side quest Bully the Bullies is one of only a handful of missions missable throughout Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and as such it is uncertain if Kassandra canonically eliminated the krypteia, as Pausanias asked.
• Keleas' name may be a reference to the Greek word κελοῖα (keloia, also kelea), which was a contest for boys and youths of Sparta.

Gallery

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  Keleas
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  Keleas addressing the crowd

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey