Kaos: What are the myths behind the characters of the Netflix series?

Greek mythology has been adapted many times, but it has never tired of it. This time, it’s Netflix’s turn with its series Kaos to get started. The show has already won over its audience, surely thanks to these ancient myths brought up to date, but also thanks to its beautiful headliner, Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, La Mouche, Independence Day). The latter embodies Zeus, the God of the sky and lightning who reigns over Olympus, and he is not at all the only mythological character to appear. In total, there are more than twenty! Whether you have some memories of school or not, SFR News will refresh your memory by introducing you to the real myths behind all these characters.

The Gods and Titans

Zeus and Hera

You probably already know Zeus, often depicted as a tall man with a white beard and carrying the aegis and thunderbolt. However, his second and last wife is a little less popular: Hera, the goddess of marriage and fidelity and also sister of the King of the gods. While these two have loved each other since day one, everything sets them apart. Zeus, eccentric and angry, has a series of conquests and deceptions, and multiplies children with mortals. While Hera, by her status, embodies loyalty and also has the bad role. Most often, she is depicted as bitter with her husband. At the same time, there is reason to be.

Hades and Persephone

Hades, one of the Three Great Gods with his two brothers Poseidon and Zeus, was assigned to the underworld and became the King of the dead. He met few people there and when one day, filled with solitude, he went back up to the surface, he met the beautiful Persephone, daughter of Zeus among many others. In love with her, he kidnapped her and made her his wife. Obviously, a scandal broke out and a compromise resulted: Persephone would spend 6 months in the underworld and 6 months on the surface to join her mother Demeter. Each time this happened, the latter’s joy triggered spring and summer before giving way to more gloomy times – autumn and winter – when the beloved of the lord of the underworld joined him again.

Dionysos

Another child of Zeus, the latter defines himself mainly as the God of wine and vines, but in truth, he symbolizes much more than that. Many writings have remained evoking this divinity and most of them refer to the Dionysia. They were initially religious festivals, which later became political with the aim of strengthening community feeling. They had a great role in the cities, a bit like the games of the Colosseum in ancient Rome, as we can see in Those About to Die. These festivities then associated the God of Wine also with drunkenness, lust, celebration, and even theater. Today, his legacy has left enormous sculptures of penises thousands of years old in the temples dedicated to him.

Prometheus

Prometheus, the narrator of the series, is surely one of the most interesting mythological deities that has been rewritten several times by different poets throughout antiquity. These stories keep the same plot. Prometheus is a titan who lived alongside Zeus before he killed his father and took power. After that, titans, gods and men still lived together, but Zeus decided to separate men from other beings. Prometheus, himself, decided to protect men and deceive Zeus. Angry, the King of the gods deprived humans of fire. Prometheus finally decided to steal this spark to give it back to his protégés. Zeus, once again irritable, punishes the latter: nailed to a rock, he is condemned to have his liver – which grows back constantly – devoured by vultures for eternity. In all the stories, Prometheus is the one who made men awaken.

The Moirai

The Moirai, as in the series, work in trio (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos). They are the deities of destiny and their influence on our life is often described by poets with the metaphor of a thread. The first is the one who pulls the thread, the length is equivalent to the days in our life. The second winds it and is responsible for our fate, the events of our life. As for the last, she cuts this thread and then decides the end of our life. Although they seem primordial in view of the stakes of their actions, they appear very little in ancient texts and have few important roles.

Mortals of Greek Mythology

Minos, Glaucus and Daedalus

One of the kings of Crete, Asterion, died without descendants. It was at this time that Minos, another son of Zeus, took his chance and proclaimed himself king, boasting of having the favors of the gods. To prove it, he asked Poseidon for the power to create a bull. This was done, but the God of the sea was cunning and made Minos’ wife fall in love with the beast. She then asked Daedalus, an ingenious architect and sculptor of the city, to design her a hollow wooden cow so that she could hide in it and mate with the bull (there are not only beautiful stories). The result was an offspring: the Minotaur (associated with Glaucus in the Netflix show). Minos, disgusted by this union, asked Daedalus, still solicited, to create a labyrinth to lock the beast in, the famous Minotaur labyrinth.

Ariadne and Theseus

In this famous labyrinth, Minos sends every 9 years a total of 14 Athenians that he demands as tribute. Theseus, a young Athenian, tired of these carnages, decides to go on a quest in this maze in order to kill the monster. Minos laughs at the young man’s initiative, not knowing that his daughter Ariadne, madly in love with the Athenian, helps him in secret. She provides him with a long thread and her father’s sword. Theseus will manage to find his way thanks to the first and to eliminate the beast thanks to the second. And since women unfortunately rarely have the good role in mythology, Theseus, the ungrateful one, abandons Ariadne on a desert island on his return to his city.

Orpheus and Eurydice

In Kaosthese two are on the verge of an unfortunate breakup, yet the couple had an even more tragic end in the myths. Eurydice, unfortunately, ends up dying from a snake bite. Orpheus, inconsolable, begins a lament and succeeds in moving the gods with his song filled with dismay. He even manages to convince Hades to give him back his companion. He accepts on one condition: that they leave the underworld one after the other without Orpheus turning around. Obviously, Orpheus, suspicious of the King of the dead, ends up turning around and condemns his other half to eternal damnation, as well as himself to endless remorse.

Ceneus

In the series, Ceneus, originally a woman, begins a transition to become a man. In the myths, it is not at all different. Similarly, Ceneus, born as a woman, experiences the horror of being raped by Poseidon. In return, he grants her a wish – as if that would change anything. Ceneus, still in shock, decides to become a man so as not to experience such trauma again. The Roman poet Ovid described it this way:

“My affront, she replies, makes me form this one wish, that I may no longer suffer such things. Let me no longer be a woman, and you will have granted me everything.”

Cassandra

In the show, Cassandra talks endlessly about the future without anyone believing her. In myths, it’s the same thing. She gets this gift from Apollo, the God of too many things like singing, light, archery, healing, etc. Like many deities, he gives nothing for nothing and had something up his sleeve. You can guess what it is, however Cassandra refuses to sleep with him and to punish her, he makes sure that no one believes her no matter what she says.

Charon

Unlike in the show, Charon has no real connection to Prometheus in the myths. He is simply the ferryman of the Underworld. Always associated with his boat that allows him to navigate the Styx, he exchanges money for transport to the underworld. Without the means to pay, the dead are forced to work for 200 years before entering the realm of Hades.

Subscribe to Netflix

After this little review of Greek mythology, find all these characters in the series Kaoswhose 8 episodes are already available on Netflix.

Source : Larousse