Alpharius: watching Ultramarines descend on his legion You may be wondering, how did it come to this? Well...

Alpharius and Omegon could also be a reference to the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, in the sense that one of them lives and one of them dies. And the one who lives is the one created by Zeus or was closer to the Emperor.

Dan abnett is well known for not only basing his writings very much off of ancient myths, and stories, but also getting like waaaaaayyyy too deep into them in a good way. Like prospero burns, that whole story he literally read all the Norse sagas as research before he started writing it, and went out of his way to write the books action in the style of Nordic sagas, mostly because he thought the space wolves were kinda goofy and he wanted to bring some authenticity to it. Also I know you were just analyzing this from a mythological perspective but the code word Orpheus also very much calls back to the king in yellow story line at the moment as well

To be fair Heracles did marry someone who’s name basically means husband destroyer so I’m not sure the hydra can claim the kill

Emperor rizzing up Isha is a hilarious idea, GW should totally go for it

Just one thing: Centaurs aren't JUST boisterous drunks or whatever. In many Greek myths, including Herakles', I think, they are actually the mentors of the hero, teaching them medicine and stuff. Foremost among them was Chiron, who, according to wikipedia was "a great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly revered as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many culture heroes: Asclepius, Aristaeus, Actaeon, Achilles, Jason, Medus."

3:30 thats why Alpharius is so fascinating to me. The idea of him being the secret sword who protects the imperium from the shadows or in this case the traitor forces

Hi! There's one more bit of symbolism in the Hydra that I think is worth mentioning: in at least some versions of the myth, one of its heads was truly immortal. So after it was cut off, it had to be entombed beneath the earth, sealed under a massive rock. In that sense, Alpha is unbeatable—you can't destroy the core, only restrain it. Or keep it in stasis. For example, beneath the Imperial Palace… or something

What if Deathrow is actually Omegon, keeping an eye on Eisenhorn and manipulating parts of the Inquisition to hunt the threats that matter?
And what if Valdor — as the King in Yellow — and Dorn are gathering an army to capture and bind the Starchild to the Emperor, because the Starchild represents his remaining humanity?
In that case, the Terminus Decree would mean exactly this: the Grey Knights must support Valdor the moment he returns to Terra with his host. All of this would have been the Emperor’s true plan from the beginning.
If that’s the case, what would the plan be for the other Primarchs?

The more I think about it the more Apollo's separate journey and connection to prophecy makes me think the Cabal may have had some hand in raising the second found from a distance.

I don't think Dan Abnett is the type of writer too use words simply because they "sound cool".
It's a little too well connected for it all to be a coincidence

2:23 nuh uh, Hercules tied the heads together and dropped big rock on him. I saw the movie.

An interesting take… we have moved you further to the top of “The List” and will plan accordingly…

Alpharius: "I am Alphari-." 'Bam!

Another Alphaius resume showed up with a smoking bolter in his hand.

Another Alphaius: "No, I am Alphaius."

Finally people are realising that the alpha legion are very important not in the spot light but pulling the strings

2:02 You could possibly say that this itself is a connection to the Alpha Legion, with irl discrepancies in information and storytelling relating to in-universe confusion on the status of the legion and their primarch(s)

"Wait....hydra? Hercules?! WE HAVE TO WARN PERTURABO BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!"

What if the third head on the symbol means there's a third primarch that not even Alpharius and Omegon knew existed?

Just something for Rowboat Gorillaman to check under his bed for.

Anabasis was probably just chosen because it literally means “the journey up” or “the ascent”, and was used by Xenophon to refer to his army’s march “up country” north from the center of Anatolia to the coast of the Black Sea.

In the context of the Emperor’s teleporting to the battle barge above him, “Anabasis” seems like just a literal pun on the word.

IE I doubt there was any intentional connection between the use of Anabasis and Xenophon as code words. Anabasis seems like just a bit of a wink wink on its literal meaning, and Xenophon was likely chosen because the person Xenophon was a mercenary known for the “perfect” fighting retreat and was an Athenian banished by Athens for fighting on behalf of their enemies the Spartans - which seems to fit the theme of the Alpha Legion betraying the Traitors and helping in the fighting retreat/defense of the Imperium as it reaches its final stand.

The tale of Orpheus has always been my favorite Greek myth. It's cool to see it referenced in 40k.