Getting to grips with the Chaos in Kaos

Charlie Covell’s Kaos is an absolute masterpiece—but what Greek myths does the Netflix show draw on?

When I first sat down to watch Kaos on Netflix, I planned for the show to be the background noise to a particularly monotonous work day. It’s a terrible habit, but I occasionally like the drone of the TV to help me get through tasks when I’m feeling particularly unmotivated—even though I know it makes everything I do take longer. But, surprisingly, I found myself stopping, rewinding, and even restarting entire episodes, so much so that I decided to begin the series again—this time giving it my full attention. 

Kaos has been advertised as bringing Greek mythology to the present day, but to market it in this way is a complete undersell of what is a dangerously addictive and salacious show that probes some lofty topics, including gender, politics, religion, power dynamics and the concept of free will. That said, to truly grasp the show and its nuances, there's one thing worth knowing: the Greek myths on which it’s based. While I thoroughly enjoyed the series and its concept, I became painfully aware of how unversed I am in the stories the show has at its core. So, I’ve done some digging to get up to speed (at least somewhat) with what on earth is going on.

Disclaimer: I’ve tried my best not to include any spoilers, but if you’re precious about that sort of thing, it's best to wait until after you’ve watched the show to read this because I can’t make any promises. 

Cassandra and her mindless babbles

Minutes into the show’s first episode, a scruffy-looking woman named Cassandra (played by Billie Piper) approaches the show’s protagonist, Riddy (played by Aurora Perrineau), in the cereal aisle of a supermarket. Soon after, we find Cassandra in the car park fighting off a security guard after stealing cat food (to eat herself), which Riddy pays for to de-escalate the situation. Throughout these two initial encounters Riddy has with this seemingly unhinged woman, Cassandra shares what appears to be fits of mindless predictions, including that “everyone steals, even the gods,” who are in particular “stealing our souls.” For many, these prophecies are easy to disregard, especially early in the show—until it becomes clear that Cassandra might actually be on to something.

In a piece for Stylist about how Kaos exemplifies the realities of how women often go unbelieved, freelance writer Kayleigh Dray explains that “According to [the ancient Greek poet and dramatist] Aeschylus’s tragedy Agamemnon, it was the god Apollo who gifted Cassandra the power of prophecy – but he had an ulterior motive in mind. When she rejected him romantically, his sense of entitlement was so huge, and his ego so wounded that he decided to slap a curse down on her in a twisted act of revenge: she could still accurately predict future events but was doomed never to be believed by anyone with whom she shared her prophecies.”

Zeus and his paranoia

Actor Jeff Goldblum as Zeus is what initially enticed me to Kaos. Goldblum makes a very convincing obnoxious-extraparanoid-tracksuit-wearing King of the Gods as things go. The parallels between Zeus’s storylines in Kaos and Greek mythologies are plenty, from countless lovers to his link to the Titans (the deities in Greek mythology that preceded the Olympians). In the show, Zeus is obsessed with his demise, convinced that it will soon come to pass—an understandable fear when you’re a senseless egotist with many haters.