KAOS landed on Netflix less than two weeks ago, and has stubbornly remained in the streaming platform’s top 10 carousel ever since. The modern retelling of Ancient Greek mythology has had the UK hooked, and it’s no wonder – it’s populated by a seasoned cast of actors, follows intricately linked storylines with familiar characters, and presents viewers with worlds that are both bursting with colour and drowning in greyscale.
Since its release, fans have been keenly discussing some of the biggest plot drivers – from the significance of Zeus’ lost watch, to who Hera is furiously phoning in the finale. But they’re also eager to find the subtle and clever easter eggs, too. And once you start looking, you’ll find that KAOS is absolutely littered with brilliant nods to Greek myths and legends.
Show creator Charlie Covell has spoken about some of their favourite moments with secret meanings, so if you’re planning to watch KAOS for a second time you can do so armed with all of this glorious additional knowledge.
The best KAOS easter eggs
1. Riddy’s death and the Serpent Solutions truck
(Image credit: KAOS / Netflix)
At the end of episode one, Riddy is killed instantly when she’s hit by a truck. In Greek mythology, Eurydice – the character which Riddy is based on – dies when she gets bitten by a snake. Tying the two together, you’ll notice that the lorry which kills Riddy includes a subtle nod to Eurydice’s death.
And it turns out, it’s also creator Charlie Covell’s favourite easter egg. In an interview with Huff Post, they said: “You have to pause it, but if you go back a few frames before Riddy is hit by the truck and pause it, it says Serpent Solutions. In the myths, she’s bitten by a snake and dies. But no one sees [the name]. I was like,’ Can we slow down the truck?’ and they were like, ‘No, it’ll ruin it because it won’t hit her fast enough’.
“So it was like, ‘Easter egg or good moment of drama?’ And obviously the drama won.”
2. The honey in the supermarket cereal
When struggling to pick cereal for her husband Orpheus, Riddy stares blankly at the shelves. After a quick pause, you’ll see that the options are: Achilles Heels (a nod to the Greek hero who was immortal but for his heel), Gaea’s Granola (Gaea is the Goddess of Earth) and Méli Morn (méli is the Greek word for ‘honey’ or ‘honeybee’).
But there’s an even better easter egg on the breakfast aisle. The cereal Riddy decides to buy is Spartan Crunch, which the label claims is made ‘with 10% Olympus honey’. And we all know where those bees come from.
3. Dionysus has an interesting club of choice
(Image credit: KAOS / Netflix)
He’s the God of wine, pleasure and insanity – and when we first meet Dionysus, he’s out out. After drinking the night away, he stumbles onto the street and swiftly finds himself a post-party kebab. But as he leaves the nightclub, you’ll notice its name: Panopeus. According to Greek mythology, Panopeus was a small town which poet Homer describes as having ‘beautiful dancing floors’. After seeing the sheer amount of confetti and disco balls in that place, it makes total sense.
4. Persephone and her aversion to pomegranates
(Image credit: KAOS / Netflix)
In the original stories, Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and forced to live with him. She eventually falls in love with the God of Death and becomes Queen of the underworld, but when her mother attempts to bring her back to earth she eats six pomegranate seeds knowing that consuming anything will condemn her to a life there. The compromise is that she spends six months of the year with Hades, and six with her mother on Earth.
There’s a clever reference to this tale in the show when Hera tells Persephone that she won’t be making lunch for the family reunion, and quips: “Bring a sandwich.” As well as Persephone’s mention of having a pomegranate allergy, the sandwich she brings is wrapped in a tin-foil swan – a nod to another story in Greek mythology, that of Leda and the Swan.
Charlie Covell expanded on the pomegranate thread during an interview with Cosmopolitan UK, explaining: “The pomegranate is important symbolically. So you’ve got Riddy buying the pomegranate [in the supermarket], which is connected to death. And then in episode eight, Zeus is slicing a pomegranate in his dreams.” Clever.
5. The Cave is Orpheus’ original portal to the underworld
(Image credit: KAOS / Netflix)
When Dionysus decides he wants to do something nice for the mortals, he picks grieving Orpheus as his new project. After convincing the musician that he’ll take him to the underworld to find his deceased wife Riddy, Dionysus takes Orpheus to a solitary bar in the desert, aptly named The Cave.
While it houses the Fates and their competition for mortals in KAOS, Orpheus does actually find his way to Hades through an actual cave in the original story. He attempts to retrieve Eurydice using a cave portal, so it’s a subtle tie-in with the tale.
6. The newspaper names are very significant
There are a few moments when we get a little insight into what the citizens of Crete read – and that includes the newspapers. When Riddy goes to visit her mother at the chapel, she’s greeted by a guard reading The Echo – a tribute to Ovid’s poem The Metamorphoses, which includes a tale about Echo and Narcissus.
When Orpheus buys cigarettes from a kiosk on the way to his gig, you can also make out some other popular titles on the magazine rack, including a blue publication called Angel and Muse (a nod to renaissance painters and their fascination with Greek mythology), and a pink magazine called Clops (which is presumably one of the centaurs).
7. There’s a cheeky nod to a male strip group
It’s a tiny moment in the series, but an excellent one. While Riddy is driving home from the supermarket she spots a number of posters for Orpheus’ music, most of which include images of her own face. But what you might not have noticed is that the billboard next to her husband’s contains a poster for The Centaurs, a group of topless men who are also half-horse – and look rather like an Ancient Greek equivalent of the dancers from Magic Mike Live.
KAOS is available to stream now on Netflix.