Although I'm rarely correct, I've been known to come up with some mean theories for True Detective. A few episodes deep into Season 2, and I've already started drumming up what the True Detective Season 2 Greek mythology link means to the series as a whole. Color me paranoid, but I think that there is some type of connection happening by the hand of Zeus. Could all of the characters somehow be linked through Greek mythology, and eventually point us to the killer in the bird mask?
First, we have characters named after Greek mythological figures. Rachel McAdam's character, Antigone, might sound familiar if you got stuck taking a history class in college. Antigone, by Sophocles, tells the story about a rebellious young woman who wants to bury her dead brother instead of seeing him rot in the streets as the King has called for. Antigone, against all orders, sees to it that her brother finds his final resting place. Antigone dies at the end of the play, so as Bustle's Jefferson Grubbs suggested, Ani Bezzerides could see the same tragic fate.
Now, Ani also has a sister in True Detective, who is not named after the sister in Antigone (Ismene). Ani's sister's name is Athena, which has a much more pleasant connotation. Athena, in Greek mythology, stands for "goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature." Athena, being the strong gal she is, doesn't have a mother in Greek mythology. Instead, she quite literally sprung from her father Zeus' forehead. As one does. Athena in True Detective is a former drug addict who is now in the Internet sex industry. But, something tells me that Athena might come out of nowhere and start spouting some words of wisdom at her sister Ani on True Detective.
Then there is Panticapaeum. The Panticapaeum Institute is the hippie commune that Ani and Athena's father runs. In Greek history, Panticapaeum is an ancient city that was an important commercial center that was later damaged severely by an earthquake and then completely destroyed by the Huns. I believe that everything revolves around the Panticapaeum, where we know Ani was raised with five children under her father's "unique" parenting.
We learned in Episode 2 that out of the five children that were raised at Panticapaeum, two of the have committed suicide, two are now in jail, and one (Ani) is a detective. Could the killer somehow be related to the remaining children that are still alive? The bird mask — which I believe to be a raven or a crow — could confirm that.
In Greek mythology, ravens were a symbol of Apollo, another Greek god. So it would seem that the killer could be "Apollo." Apollo's connection with ravens is that he once asked a raven to spy on his love while he was away, only to learn that she was having an affair. The bird was supposed to poke out the eyes of the man Apollo's love was having an affair with, but the bird wasn't able to in time. If that concept sounds familiar, it's because Caspere's eyes were burned in True Detective . Yeah. It's all making sense now.
So if the killer is Apollo, he could somehow be connected to the Panticapaeum Institute that Ani's father owns. Perhaps he is one of the not dead children Ani was raised with. Either that, or I'm incredibly paranoid. I'm just going to go back to staring at Taylor Kitsch gifs.
Images: Lacey Terrell/HBO (2); Giphy
