KAOS gives Riddy way more agency than the original myth – here she (along with Ari and Canaeus) will be responsible for freeing the living and the dead. And while Orpheus is the romantic hero of the myth, here he is a little misguided – he takes Riddy’s coin, then attempts to bring her back to life without considering whether she actually wants that (and in KAOS, she does not, having fallen in love with Canaeus).
Hades and Persephone
David Thewlis and Rakie Ayola play Hades and Persephone, King and Queen of the Underworld. In KAOS the two are a loving couple, with Hades a bit of a pushover and Persephone his rock. In the original myth Persephone is the daughter of Demeter – Hades’ sister. Hades kidnaps Persephone and drags her to the underworld. Demeter, who was the Goddess of the harvest and agriculture, was devastated and her sorrow resulted in the world growing cold and barren and crops failing. Zeus intervened, telling Hades to return Persephone, but before he does so he tricks her into eating pomegranate seeds – if you eat the food of the underworld you are stuck there. Trouble is, that doesn’t work for the poor starving earthlings. The compromise was that Persephone could return to the earth but she had to spend half (or a third depending which version you read) of the year in the underworld. And that is how we get the seasons!
KAOS’ version of this couple is way sweeter, but the show acknowledges the original myth. Hera has invented the distorted version of Persephone’s story found in all the “human books” and Persephone calls her out on this asking her why the mortals think she was kidnapped and even raped (Hera just shrugs – it’s sport for her). “I don’t eat pomegranate,” Persephone says. “I’m allergic.”
Theseus and the Minotaur
Or rather, in KAOS, not Theseus and the Minotaur…
In the myth the Minotaur is half-man half-bull, born by King Minos’s wife, after Poseidon curses her into falling in love with a bull. Minos has architect Daedelus (played by Mat Fraser in KAOS) and his son Icarus build the labyrinth to contain the Minotaur – this is the same Icarus who flew too close to the sun and drowned when the wax holding his wings together melted – he was flying to escape the labyrinth.
In revenge for the murder of his son by some Athenians, King Minos demanded seven men and seven women be devoured by the Minotaur every seven (or possibly nine) years. Theseus was a hero who came over to Crete to defeat the Minotaur. He managed to do this and escape the labyrinth with the help from Minos’ daughter Ariadne who had fallen in love with Theseus – she gives him a ball of thread he can use to retrace his steps and escape the maze after he has slain the beast.