There is not really a clear-cut theory, more like an adjustment to the common concepts described in the theory-pages after the seasonal ending. The apparent mythical imagery has spawned some intricate and quite inspiring theories but I really want everybody to "hold their horses" before reading too much into what they just read in a wikipedia-entry depicting their newfound favourite Egyptian god.
We all want to make Jacob into something "big" and there seems to be a need to create a convergence between the statue and Jacob living underneath it (presumably). It is important to at least try to keep them a little bit apart. This is especially important when you consider that the relief that Jacob has weaved and hung up on the wall of his underground layer. I think the relief is as important as the actual statue cause they sure took their time depicting the creation of it.
The relief depicts both egyptian dieties and a quote from Homers Oddyssey, something that clearly should be totally distinct.This is the first connection between the hieroglyphs we have seen scattered around and the hints along the way in this and previous series about things taken from Greek and Judeo-christian mythology (mostly in names of the characters). This statue and the hieroglyps are the only important arch-typical Egyption depictions, and up until this episode it seemed like it was the only religious depictions. There aren't an abundance of crosses on the island other than what the characters brought with them. The most important thing about the hieroglyps as backdrop-elements is that most if not all of us can't read them and they have been icons, tidbits and not whole reliefs like this one. Another important thing is that the hieroglyphs are OLD. Much older than the Dharma initiative and the Black rock or any character we have met (until now)
The relief depicts an eye enclosed by the wings of a falcon (To my knowledge there aren't any strong contenders except being the wings of a falcon. Falcons were very important to Egyptians). I've seen this all around being called the "Eye of Horus". Which is true, but in fact it could also be the "Eye of Ra".Egyptian mythology is very localized in its form and as the different myths grew and assimilated from district to district they lent from each other and they often kept a common base motif. In fact if you look at a depiction of Ra and compare it with a depiction of Horus you will see that they both hold an ank (like the statue holds) and a staff. In fact both of them are Falcon-headed and the only thing that differentiate them is what they wear on the top of their head. So... Which one of them is it in the relief? It is somewhat clear that the "rays" that connects the followers with this eye-wings motif is very reminiscent of sun-rays. Ra being the sun-god of Egyptian my! thology and Horus being a "the-whole-sky"-god of Egyptian mythology make it seem that this is supposed to be Ra. But with the similarities and the commonality between them, who is to say what God it is? I surely will not take a guess...
This brings me to the important part of this "theory". I don't think it matters which god, the same with the statue. All Egyptian mythology link the animal and the human aspects in their deities. The running theme in the theories posted here is that the statue is Sobek. Sobek was kind-of like a protector-god because of the link between Crocodiles and the importance of the yearly flooding of the Nile (which was THE basis of any religious mythologies in that region). The thing is that crocodiles were only common in some parts, other parts they would choose deities to depict with completely different animal characteristics. Why then the f**k-off huge statue placed looking facing the sea? My guess: Some kind of warning or protection. Who it depicts doesn't seem to matter... Don't read too much into it as it isn't shown that who stands there is supposed to tell you anything about the others, the island or Jacob. We can theorize (like I do here) but it's not like Jacob has pointed! to the statue and said: "hey... this is my father". It is a landmark, something very old that is clearly very visible and which probably was destroyed by an apparent cataclysmic event sometime between 1977 and 2007 (assuming that they hae experienced something similar to our historical timeline and looking at how the dharma-stations and abandoned villages have degenerated aproximately 30-ish years untill they are discovered in 2004 and later by the island-hoppers of our timeline is quite a bit later than 2500BC and thereabout when the Egyptian gods are from, 30 years hould not have had that effect on the statue which seemed just fine in 1977).
So what do they all mean? Why the Ra/Horus-motif? Well. Apparently Jacob is the white person and his "nemesis", counterweight, opposite or what you are going to call it is the black one. Jacob is taking a lot of time to create a relief depiciting sun-worship and he seems like he wants to celebrate potential in beings. I'm guessing he is not the smoke-monster, and the fact that they have made an issue about white versus black, or opposite philosophies about human nature and the potential of human beings makes me look back at the Egyptian origins for similarities. Like the day overtakes the night, so does the spring overtake the winter. The forces of creation is followed by the forces of destruction in a cyclical manner.
The loophole mentioned in the finale is somewhat of a giveaway of the cart derailing from the track, but as Jacob seems non-plussed until he is stabbed although he seems quite omnipresent and omnipotent throughout the series and especially this episode, I don't think that the players are "destructable" in the same manner as we humans are.
This brings me to what I feel is the important unraveling of this episode. The two apparent opposites seem to play a game, departed from time, life and space. They are controllers of the human psyche through the visitors and inhabitors of this strange island. Maybe this islike a chess-game and the people we have seen has been the pawns.
This is not a breathtaking theory, but I wasn't expecting a breathtaking episode. I expected them to bring the mythology into the picture again, as it is with most histories of heros and their journeys. This is a common imagery used in all religions. We had a lot of focus on the puppet-masters this episode, but we cannot forget the "variables" (as faraday puts it). I am guessing the next season will show why Jacob didn't put up a real fight when all the others came strolling in, breaking all the rules of dealing-with-Jacob all of a sudden.
Religious stories have to connect to people, and assuming the role as the most important beings on this planet we tend to tell stories about ourself. The heroes journey against all odds and sometimes even against all "gods" in epic battles is very common. The big difference i got from this (but only by looking at the sideline plot) is that Egyptian religion is for-the-rulers (big regal characters ruling the land and the people, and they themselves sometimes worshiped as gods) and the judeo-christian focus on the "small people" and their connection to their gods. How free is the will of the inhabitants of this island... I am not sure. They surely seem to change their mind a whole lot :) So maybe they are trying to tell us that the free will of the variable will upend the ongoing, seamingly never-ending battle between Jacob and ????.
Just to clarify: I am not a religious person. I don't believe in any manifestation of a non-earthly but still humanly comparable character, conciousness et-al ruling or even influencing us humans. I understand that religion is very important in the US and this somewhat shapes the characters of this series. I don't want to seem disrespectful of religious believers, but the notion of whatever happens happens or any form of determinism is utterly insane in my opinion. Any comparisons to any kind of end-time in any profetized form belongs purely in the form of statistics and not in the ramblings of any devout fundamentalist, alarmist whack-job. Determinism as a concept has been debunked and rejected by moder philosophy. Anyone expecting to be slain in a heavenly good-versus-evil battle anytime soon should reconsider their core beliefs. Note that english is my second language, so there will be a lot of typos.
We all want to make Jacob into something "big" and there seems to be a need to create a convergence between the statue and Jacob living underneath it (presumably). It is important to at least try to keep them a little bit apart. This is especially important when you consider that the relief that Jacob has weaved and hung up on the wall of his underground layer. I think the relief is as important as the actual statue cause they sure took their time depicting the creation of it.
The relief depicts both egyptian dieties and a quote from Homers Oddyssey, something that clearly should be totally distinct.This is the first connection between the hieroglyphs we have seen scattered around and the hints along the way in this and previous series about things taken from Greek and Judeo-christian mythology (mostly in names of the characters). This statue and the hieroglyps are the only important arch-typical Egyption depictions, and up until this episode it seemed like it was the only religious depictions. There aren't an abundance of crosses on the island other than what the characters brought with them. The most important thing about the hieroglyps as backdrop-elements is that most if not all of us can't read them and they have been icons, tidbits and not whole reliefs like this one. Another important thing is that the hieroglyphs are OLD. Much older than the Dharma initiative and the Black rock or any character we have met (until now)
The relief depicts an eye enclosed by the wings of a falcon (To my knowledge there aren't any strong contenders except being the wings of a falcon. Falcons were very important to Egyptians). I've seen this all around being called the "Eye of Horus". Which is true, but in fact it could also be the "Eye of Ra".Egyptian mythology is very localized in its form and as the different myths grew and assimilated from district to district they lent from each other and they often kept a common base motif. In fact if you look at a depiction of Ra and compare it with a depiction of Horus you will see that they both hold an ank (like the statue holds) and a staff. In fact both of them are Falcon-headed and the only thing that differentiate them is what they wear on the top of their head. So... Which one of them is it in the relief? It is somewhat clear that the "rays" that connects the followers with this eye-wings motif is very reminiscent of sun-rays. Ra being the sun-god of Egyptian my! thology and Horus being a "the-whole-sky"-god of Egyptian mythology make it seem that this is supposed to be Ra. But with the similarities and the commonality between them, who is to say what God it is? I surely will not take a guess...
This brings me to the important part of this "theory". I don't think it matters which god, the same with the statue. All Egyptian mythology link the animal and the human aspects in their deities. The running theme in the theories posted here is that the statue is Sobek. Sobek was kind-of like a protector-god because of the link between Crocodiles and the importance of the yearly flooding of the Nile (which was THE basis of any religious mythologies in that region). The thing is that crocodiles were only common in some parts, other parts they would choose deities to depict with completely different animal characteristics. Why then the f**k-off huge statue placed looking facing the sea? My guess: Some kind of warning or protection. Who it depicts doesn't seem to matter... Don't read too much into it as it isn't shown that who stands there is supposed to tell you anything about the others, the island or Jacob. We can theorize (like I do here) but it's not like Jacob has pointed! to the statue and said: "hey... this is my father". It is a landmark, something very old that is clearly very visible and which probably was destroyed by an apparent cataclysmic event sometime between 1977 and 2007 (assuming that they hae experienced something similar to our historical timeline and looking at how the dharma-stations and abandoned villages have degenerated aproximately 30-ish years untill they are discovered in 2004 and later by the island-hoppers of our timeline is quite a bit later than 2500BC and thereabout when the Egyptian gods are from, 30 years hould not have had that effect on the statue which seemed just fine in 1977).
So what do they all mean? Why the Ra/Horus-motif? Well. Apparently Jacob is the white person and his "nemesis", counterweight, opposite or what you are going to call it is the black one. Jacob is taking a lot of time to create a relief depiciting sun-worship and he seems like he wants to celebrate potential in beings. I'm guessing he is not the smoke-monster, and the fact that they have made an issue about white versus black, or opposite philosophies about human nature and the potential of human beings makes me look back at the Egyptian origins for similarities. Like the day overtakes the night, so does the spring overtake the winter. The forces of creation is followed by the forces of destruction in a cyclical manner.
The loophole mentioned in the finale is somewhat of a giveaway of the cart derailing from the track, but as Jacob seems non-plussed until he is stabbed although he seems quite omnipresent and omnipotent throughout the series and especially this episode, I don't think that the players are "destructable" in the same manner as we humans are.
This brings me to what I feel is the important unraveling of this episode. The two apparent opposites seem to play a game, departed from time, life and space. They are controllers of the human psyche through the visitors and inhabitors of this strange island. Maybe this islike a chess-game and the people we have seen has been the pawns.
This is not a breathtaking theory, but I wasn't expecting a breathtaking episode. I expected them to bring the mythology into the picture again, as it is with most histories of heros and their journeys. This is a common imagery used in all religions. We had a lot of focus on the puppet-masters this episode, but we cannot forget the "variables" (as faraday puts it). I am guessing the next season will show why Jacob didn't put up a real fight when all the others came strolling in, breaking all the rules of dealing-with-Jacob all of a sudden.
Religious stories have to connect to people, and assuming the role as the most important beings on this planet we tend to tell stories about ourself. The heroes journey against all odds and sometimes even against all "gods" in epic battles is very common. The big difference i got from this (but only by looking at the sideline plot) is that Egyptian religion is for-the-rulers (big regal characters ruling the land and the people, and they themselves sometimes worshiped as gods) and the judeo-christian focus on the "small people" and their connection to their gods. How free is the will of the inhabitants of this island... I am not sure. They surely seem to change their mind a whole lot :) So maybe they are trying to tell us that the free will of the variable will upend the ongoing, seamingly never-ending battle between Jacob and ????.
Just to clarify: I am not a religious person. I don't believe in any manifestation of a non-earthly but still humanly comparable character, conciousness et-al ruling or even influencing us humans. I understand that religion is very important in the US and this somewhat shapes the characters of this series. I don't want to seem disrespectful of religious believers, but the notion of whatever happens happens or any form of determinism is utterly insane in my opinion. Any comparisons to any kind of end-time in any profetized form belongs purely in the form of statistics and not in the ramblings of any devout fundamentalist, alarmist whack-job. Determinism as a concept has been debunked and rejected by moder philosophy. Anyone expecting to be slain in a heavenly good-versus-evil battle anytime soon should reconsider their core beliefs. Note that english is my second language, so there will be a lot of typos.
