1899 Explained- Plato’s Cave Allegory, Greek Mythology, And All The Literary References

The Dark creators have done it again. The German geniuses behind the poignant, moody sci-fi mind melter have managed to capture lightning in a bottle twice. The first couple of episodes require some patience to build the entirety of this world, which we find out is even more expansive than we thought. The cast is enormous, and the stories are almost endless. However, if you invest the time, the payoff in the last episode of the eight-episode run is worth it. 1899 is everything you hoped the follow-up to Dark would be. It is thoughtful, brooding, atmospheric, and very surprising.

There are a ton of prominent Greek mythology references throughout the series. The first is the setting. Maura Franklin(Emily Beecham) is our protagonist and entry into a steamship headed from Europe to America. There are nearly 1500 passengers and over 500 crew on board the Kerberos. Most of those aboard are hiding something. One of the shipping company’s other ships, The Prometheus, went missing four months ago without a trace. The passengers on the Kerberos hope they aren’t headed for the same fate. Throughout the series, several characters all wake from a nightmare hearing the words “wake up” whispered urgently to them. Are they waking from a nightmare or a dream, though?

How are all these things tied together? Unfortunately, that doesn’t become clear until the final moments of 1899 Episode 8. However, many of the clues were right in front of us the entire time. Here’s everything you need to know about the Greek mythology references and Plato’s Cave Allegory, which figures prominently in the shocking twist at the end of 1899.

The Kerberos

The ship our poor group is stuck on is called the Kerberos. In the traditional Latin spelling, it is Cerberus. Cerberus is the three-headed hound that guards the gates of Hades. It prevented escape from the underworld and is depicted as having snakes for a lion-type mane, a lizard’s tail, and a lion’s claws. The name translates into Death Demon of the Dark. Hercules was tasked with the hound’s retrieval as one of his twelve labors. Considering where we find out our group really is, the ship name takes on more meaning. It is the survivors’ prison. In effect, they are all shades stuck in Hell. The fact that they are really living human beings plugged into a looping program designed to test their survivability makes the ship and potentially Ciaran, the hound of Hell, preventing them from leaving.

The Prometheus

The missing Singletary Shipping Company ship, the Prometheus that, shows back up ominously in 1899 Episode 1, is named after another Greek legend. Prometheus was a Titan, a fire god, and a trickster credited with giving humanity fire. Prometheus, which means forethought, was an intelligent, compassionate God who loved humans and stole fire from Zeus by tricking him with a sacrifice. He then gave fire to us, which significantly advanced civilization. This angered Zeus, and he sent Pandora down to marry Epimetheus, which means hindsight. Prometheus warns him, but he marries her anyway, and she opens her jar or box and unleashes evils onto the world. However, Zeus does not stop there. He nails Prometheus to a mountain and dispatches an eagle to eat his immortal liver. Because his liver continuously regrows, the poor Titan is doomed to forever be in pain.

The name also turns out to be the name of the simulation that Maura and the others find themselves in at the hands of her brother Ciaran. Just like the trickster, those stuck in the simulation are doomed to repeat the same loop again and again without end. Only Maura managed to get out with the help of her husband Daniel, who reprogrammed the key and pyramid lock to allow her to get out of the simulation and discover she was actually on a spaceship in 2099.

Plato’s Cave Allegory in 1899

Several times Plato’s Cave Allegory is mentioned. Like Inception, reality is questioned. How do you know what is real from inside the reality? According to Henry, Maura’s father, who is also stuck in the simulation, she has questioned her own reality since she was a young child and read Plato’s Cave Allegory. The allegory details a group of prisoners in a cave who were chained, facing a wall. They stared at the wall and were never allowed to turn around. Because they never saw anything but their wall and the shadows on it that became their entire reality. The allegory is meant to demonstrate that humans construct their own reality and have an extremely difficult time looking past what they think they know.

When one of the prisoners is freed, he ventures into the world and discovers nothing is as he thought. He returns to the cave to free the others, but they refuse to believe him and ultimately kill the man trying to rescue them. When faced with contrary stimuli, humans always seek comfort and familiarity, even when it feeds an unpleasant belief.

In this case, they framed the new narrative to fit their reality. The freed prisoner encountered sunlight which temporarily blinded him when reentering the cave. The chained prisoners took this as a sign the outside world was as dangerous as they thought. Taking a page ascetically from Dark City, in the final moments of 1899, Maura wakes from the simulation to discover she is on a ship that feels like it could be part of the Strangers fleet or a sister ship to the Elysium from Pandorum.

Those stuck in the simulation can not imagine where they really are despite being told and shown things that should not be possible in the reality as they know it. A prime example is Tove’s parents, who think God touched them when Tove was raped, and Krester shot. Rather than accept that a terrible thing happened to them, Tove’s mother shapes the entire thing as a holy test. Everyone’s fear and guilt over their secrets also prevent them from believing Maura.

Only Captain Eyk could look past what should be and trust her. He and all the others are still stuck in the simulation, however. Now that Maura’s husband, Daniel, recoded everything and spread the virus throughout the simulation, we have no way of knowing what that simulation looks like. Their physical bodies are safe on the spaceship, but their minds are stuck. The ship is enormous. Are all the passengers on the spacecraft unconscious participants in the simulation? Why was the simulation created in the first place? Are they attempting to save humanity from some disaster we don’t know about yet, and the cruel program is the best path to survival?

The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky by Emily Dickinson

The poem narrated at the beginning of 1899 sets the tone for what is to come. The poem praises humanity for having brains capable of such beautiful things. We can create, imagine, and perceive endless things, and that infinite ability makes us closer to God. Maura learns at the end of 1899 that she may have been the creator of the program along with her brother and husband. We can’t know how much of that is true since everyone seems to have only half of the information and an aversion to sharing everything they know with others. The message is clear, though. Our brain’s capacity to shape reality makes us divine. Although we know very little about Ciaran, he already seems to think he is this experiment’s God.

The Awakening By Kate Chopin in 1899

The novel, published in 1899, depicts a young mother’s struggle to gain independence. It is a searing indictment of the patriarchal society of the time. It is a spiritual, sexual, emotional, and intellectual liberation that she seeks. Maura is a free thinker, and it is not out of character for her to have that book. Knowing that her brother or father is controlling her makes the meaning of the novel even more important. Maura needs to wake up and take back her power which she seems poised to do at the end of 1899.

Interestingly Sigmund Freud’s book The Interpretation Of Dreams was published in 1899 as well. They all appear to be living within the construct of their shared simulation, which is more of a nightmare than anything else. Freud posited that dreams were just unfulfilled infantile wishes. I doubt any of them wanted to be doomed to be continuously killed, but like Plato’s Cave, Ciaran may have convinced himself this is what they all wanted.

1899 is a departure from the emotional resonance of Dark, but it is not less enjoyable. The later episodes also ramp up the sentimentality when the boy’s identity is revealed. Unfortunately, there is still so much we don’t know about how and why the simulation works. I have a theory though this is some sort of Maze Runner situation, and they have to find the answer to survival for everyone. Unfortunately, we will have to wait and hope that Netflix greenlights Season 2 quickly. Find all our 1988 coverage here.