Hello everyone..this is the first time I've posted a theory here, I've been a lurker/reader for a long time. Yesterday, a theory someone posted about MIB being named Seth/Set (after the deity) sparked my interest and I decided to read up on Egyptian mythology for any possible Lost connections. Apologies if any of this has been discussed before, but I just thought it'd be wise to share.
Before I begin, I warn that this theory is a lot of conjecture, will probably be quite long, and lastly that all my information (regarding Egypt) comes from Wikipedia and other online sources. So, here we go.
Okay, we all know that there is obviously remnants of an ancient civilization on the Island, and I'm sure most of you agree with me that whoever they were, they were more than likely Egyptian. We've seen boatloads of hieroglyphs, ancient ruins, and the most glaring connection being the Statue of Taweret. This is where I started researching yesterday, and from Taweret I was led to other Egyptian gods/deities that she was connected to. I believe that Jacob and MIB are Egyptian gods, and while I'm not sure who is who, I'll lay out my findings here, and perhaps you all can help sort it out. To make this easy I'll start with Taweret.
Taweret = Statue
-goddess of fertility, protection in pregnancy and childbirth (supports the theory that pregnancies/births were possible before the statue was destroyed)
-became the demon-wife of Apep when paired with another deity (
-known as the mistress of the horizon
-when Set fell from grace in the Egyptian pantheon, he took over the position of Apep, god of evil (this could explain the possible connection between Smokey & MIB)
-with this, Taweret became seen only as the concubine of Set, rather than wife (perhaps this is why the statue was destroyed)
-it was said that Taweret had been an evil goddess but changed her ways and held Set back with a chain (see above comment, this chain could be how Jacob still holds power over Smokey/MIB/Island, despite statue's destruction. I also thought that it could refer to the sound we hear when Smokey is dragging someone away--to me it's always sounded like a chain being wound up)
Apep = Smoke Monster?
-Apep's identity was eventually entirely subsumed by Set because Egypt's new rulers favored Set as he was protector of Ra. Nationalists (ie, Egyptians) then began to treat Set as the god of evil, fusing his identity with Apep (explains poss. connection between MIB and Smoke Monster)
-the wide range of Apep's possible location gained him the title "World Encircler" (Smokey has been shown to be quite huge)
-it was thought his terrifying roar would cause the underworld to rumble (the Smoke Monster has a very distinctive, loud roar)
-myths say that Apep was trapped in the underworld because he was the previous chief god and suffered a coup d'etat by Ra (maybe Jacob tricked MIB in the past, and the "loophole" is part of MIB's revenge?)
Set = Man in Black/Jacob's Enemy?
-brother of Osiris
-was the god of the desert, and "necessary chaos" (I thought that this "necessary chaos" bit was interesting, if it is MIB, this may explain his views)
-pharaohs believed that Set, along with Horus (Osiris' son), balanced and reconciled competing cosmic principles (Good & Evil? Black and White?)
-it still remains unclear as to whether Set was truly infertile or not (Is this why there are fertility problems on the island?)
Osiris = Jacob?
-usually called the god of the Afterlife (he is leader/ruler of the Island, and we all know lots of dead people seem very un-dead there)
-described as the Lord of Love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful, Lord of Silence (Jacob cares deeply for his people, is always the same age, and very quiet/private from what we have seen)
-brother of Set (If MIB is indeed Set, their rivalry would make a LOT of sense if they were siblings)
-father of Horus (could "Horus" be Aaron? Jack? Or someone else?)
-was viewed as the one who died to save the many, who rose from the dead, the first of a long line that has significantly affected man's view of the world and expectations of an afterlife (the lends credence to the theory that Jacob knew he was going to be killed)
-one myth tells of Set fooling Osiris into getting into a box, which he then shut, had sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile (if we assumed the "box" to be the Cabin, perhaps Jacob/Osiris was trapped within by MIB/Set? Or vice versa perhaps?)
-most versions of this story involve Set murdering Osiris (ie, the end of The Incident)
Thoth = ? (I'm unsure of who this could be)
-had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil, all three are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods (Perhaps this is the coming war, what the show has been building to)
-1st, between Ra and Apep (? vs Smokey)
-2nd, between Heru-Bekhutet and Set (? vs MIB)
-3rd, between Horus and Set (Jacob's son? Aaron? Jack? vs MIB..this is the battle we are going to see in S6?)
-in each of these battles, the former god represented Order while the latter represented Chaos (quite simply, Good & Evil/Black & White)
-if one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other (Jacob's backup plan, "They're Coming"--perhaps this means Ilana's group represents Thoth? Or the Losties touched by Jacob? I'm unsure of this)
Okay, that covers the deities/gods I was researching. However, I came across something in Egyptian mythology that may give the Island itself some relevance:
Aaru = The Island
-the fields of Aaru (or the Egyptian reed fields) are the heavenly paradise where Osiris ruled after displacing Anubis (if Jacob is indeed Osiris, then it makes sense as he rules the Island)
-only souls who weighed exactly the same as the feather of the goddess Ma'at were allowed to start a long and perilous journey to Aaru, where they would exist in pleasure for all eternity (this is the purpose of the show, and each character still living up to S6 is worthy to be alive on the Island. The experiences of each character, as well as what happens on the Island is their 'perilous journey')
-those whose hearts did not match the weight of Ma'at's feather were said to suffer a second death, devoured by Ammit (such as Smokey killing them--in Egyptian myth, Ammit is the personification of divine retribution for all the wrongdoings one committed in life. Sound familiar?)
-Aaru was usually placed in the East, those deceased were allowed to reside there (after Judgement), and were often called the eternally living (the Island is known to be found in the South Pacific, which is in the East. Also the dead seem to be quite "active" on the Island, perhaps they are the eternally living?)
-more precisely, Aaru was envisaged as a series of islands (This is putting it blankly :P)
While I was reading about Osiris, a section of the wiki page was titled "Judgement", which I found to be very interesting:
-at death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of 42 divine judges (42 is the last of the numbers, perhaps this is what it refers to?)
-if they led a life in conformance with the precepts of Ma'at (Google/Wiki this for an understanding), they were welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris (as in, if they are judged worthy by Smokey, they are allowed to live on the Island)
-if found guilty, the person was thrown to a 'devourer' and did not share in eternal life, the person taken by the devourer is subject to terrifying punishment and then annihilated (as in, Smokey kills you)
-purification for those who are considered justified may be found in descriptions of "Flame Island" where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth (this is the purpose of the show, to defeat evil and be reborn purely? This falls into place with theories I've read here how the show is about human evolution, etc)
-for the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits (once again, Smokey)
Alright. So that was the majority of what I pieced together, but when I re-read it all, the mention of "Flame Island" bugged me. I Googled it and it led to to a section of a book title "Egypt's Making" by Michael Rice. The following excerpt was from page 248 (I have paraphrased the relevant parts):
From the earliest times the Egyptians seem to have maintained the idea that many of the beliefs and events which characterized their 'culture'...had their origins in a far distant island. The evidence for this belief is contained in various collections of texts and inscriptions.... It would appear from these texts that the Egyptians preserved, however faintly, memories of an island, far distant towards the east, on the edge of the world, where the first and most crucial acts of creation occurred and where the first and second generation of gods had their home.
One of the most frequent symbols for the first land to emerge at the creation is the Primeval Hill or Mound. Its location is sometimes explicitly marine in character: thus in the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 484 speaks of "the Primeval Hill in the midst of the sea'. The land here is specifically a sea-girt island and not a hillock of mud revealed by the withdrawal of the waters of the inundation which has so often been described as the first land to appear at the Creation. The Primeval Place was the Island of Rest, or of Peace.
The Island of Peace was associated with the rising sun; then it became 'the Island of Flame'. It was the Divine Emerging Island which appeared from the Abyss of primeval waters.... In this context the Primeval Hill sometimes was called Ta-Tenen; Tanen was the god of the Primeval Mound in Memphite theology and a recursor of Ptah. He was also regarded, like his Sumerian counterpart, Enki, as a god of the depths. From the Island of Flame (or Fire) came, in the very beginning, Hiké the personification of the vital essence which to Egyptians was the basis of life. The island was a magical place, far distant to the east, beyond the limits of the world, a place of everlasting light where the gods were born....
Now is that interesting or what?! The way I'm looking at this is that The Island is the first place in all creation. The Egyptians believed all sources of their culture came from there, this may be why we have seen so many ruins and hieroglyphs on the Island. It tells of this "Primeval Mound" being located in the far East, at the edge of the world--this is consistent with the Island's assumed location. This alludes that the island was a magical place, and as we've seen in Lost, it most certainly seems to be.
Anyway, I could keep going but I'll allow you all to draw your own conclusions. And don't put too much faith in this--it's a theory, nothing more. My luck, I'm probably totally off-base, but I thought this was worth sharing.
Enjoy! And please do discuss!
Before I begin, I warn that this theory is a lot of conjecture, will probably be quite long, and lastly that all my information (regarding Egypt) comes from Wikipedia and other online sources. So, here we go.
Okay, we all know that there is obviously remnants of an ancient civilization on the Island, and I'm sure most of you agree with me that whoever they were, they were more than likely Egyptian. We've seen boatloads of hieroglyphs, ancient ruins, and the most glaring connection being the Statue of Taweret. This is where I started researching yesterday, and from Taweret I was led to other Egyptian gods/deities that she was connected to. I believe that Jacob and MIB are Egyptian gods, and while I'm not sure who is who, I'll lay out my findings here, and perhaps you all can help sort it out. To make this easy I'll start with Taweret.
Taweret = Statue
-goddess of fertility, protection in pregnancy and childbirth (supports the theory that pregnancies/births were possible before the statue was destroyed)
-became the demon-wife of Apep when paired with another deity (
-known as the mistress of the horizon
-when Set fell from grace in the Egyptian pantheon, he took over the position of Apep, god of evil (this could explain the possible connection between Smokey & MIB)
-with this, Taweret became seen only as the concubine of Set, rather than wife (perhaps this is why the statue was destroyed)
-it was said that Taweret had been an evil goddess but changed her ways and held Set back with a chain (see above comment, this chain could be how Jacob still holds power over Smokey/MIB/Island, despite statue's destruction. I also thought that it could refer to the sound we hear when Smokey is dragging someone away--to me it's always sounded like a chain being wound up)
Apep = Smoke Monster?
-Apep's identity was eventually entirely subsumed by Set because Egypt's new rulers favored Set as he was protector of Ra. Nationalists (ie, Egyptians) then began to treat Set as the god of evil, fusing his identity with Apep (explains poss. connection between MIB and Smoke Monster)
-the wide range of Apep's possible location gained him the title "World Encircler" (Smokey has been shown to be quite huge)
-it was thought his terrifying roar would cause the underworld to rumble (the Smoke Monster has a very distinctive, loud roar)
-myths say that Apep was trapped in the underworld because he was the previous chief god and suffered a coup d'etat by Ra (maybe Jacob tricked MIB in the past, and the "loophole" is part of MIB's revenge?)
Set = Man in Black/Jacob's Enemy?
-brother of Osiris
-was the god of the desert, and "necessary chaos" (I thought that this "necessary chaos" bit was interesting, if it is MIB, this may explain his views)
-pharaohs believed that Set, along with Horus (Osiris' son), balanced and reconciled competing cosmic principles (Good & Evil? Black and White?)
-it still remains unclear as to whether Set was truly infertile or not (Is this why there are fertility problems on the island?)
Osiris = Jacob?
-usually called the god of the Afterlife (he is leader/ruler of the Island, and we all know lots of dead people seem very un-dead there)
-described as the Lord of Love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful, Lord of Silence (Jacob cares deeply for his people, is always the same age, and very quiet/private from what we have seen)
-brother of Set (If MIB is indeed Set, their rivalry would make a LOT of sense if they were siblings)
-father of Horus (could "Horus" be Aaron? Jack? Or someone else?)
-was viewed as the one who died to save the many, who rose from the dead, the first of a long line that has significantly affected man's view of the world and expectations of an afterlife (the lends credence to the theory that Jacob knew he was going to be killed)
-one myth tells of Set fooling Osiris into getting into a box, which he then shut, had sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile (if we assumed the "box" to be the Cabin, perhaps Jacob/Osiris was trapped within by MIB/Set? Or vice versa perhaps?)
-most versions of this story involve Set murdering Osiris (ie, the end of The Incident)
Thoth = ? (I'm unsure of who this could be)
-had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil, all three are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods (Perhaps this is the coming war, what the show has been building to)
-1st, between Ra and Apep (? vs Smokey)
-2nd, between Heru-Bekhutet and Set (? vs MIB)
-3rd, between Horus and Set (Jacob's son? Aaron? Jack? vs MIB..this is the battle we are going to see in S6?)
-in each of these battles, the former god represented Order while the latter represented Chaos (quite simply, Good & Evil/Black & White)
-if one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other (Jacob's backup plan, "They're Coming"--perhaps this means Ilana's group represents Thoth? Or the Losties touched by Jacob? I'm unsure of this)
Okay, that covers the deities/gods I was researching. However, I came across something in Egyptian mythology that may give the Island itself some relevance:
Aaru = The Island
-the fields of Aaru (or the Egyptian reed fields) are the heavenly paradise where Osiris ruled after displacing Anubis (if Jacob is indeed Osiris, then it makes sense as he rules the Island)
-only souls who weighed exactly the same as the feather of the goddess Ma'at were allowed to start a long and perilous journey to Aaru, where they would exist in pleasure for all eternity (this is the purpose of the show, and each character still living up to S6 is worthy to be alive on the Island. The experiences of each character, as well as what happens on the Island is their 'perilous journey')
-those whose hearts did not match the weight of Ma'at's feather were said to suffer a second death, devoured by Ammit (such as Smokey killing them--in Egyptian myth, Ammit is the personification of divine retribution for all the wrongdoings one committed in life. Sound familiar?)
-Aaru was usually placed in the East, those deceased were allowed to reside there (after Judgement), and were often called the eternally living (the Island is known to be found in the South Pacific, which is in the East. Also the dead seem to be quite "active" on the Island, perhaps they are the eternally living?)
-more precisely, Aaru was envisaged as a series of islands (This is putting it blankly :P)
While I was reading about Osiris, a section of the wiki page was titled "Judgement", which I found to be very interesting:
-at death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of 42 divine judges (42 is the last of the numbers, perhaps this is what it refers to?)
-if they led a life in conformance with the precepts of Ma'at (Google/Wiki this for an understanding), they were welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris (as in, if they are judged worthy by Smokey, they are allowed to live on the Island)
-if found guilty, the person was thrown to a 'devourer' and did not share in eternal life, the person taken by the devourer is subject to terrifying punishment and then annihilated (as in, Smokey kills you)
-purification for those who are considered justified may be found in descriptions of "Flame Island" where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth (this is the purpose of the show, to defeat evil and be reborn purely? This falls into place with theories I've read here how the show is about human evolution, etc)
-for the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits (once again, Smokey)
Alright. So that was the majority of what I pieced together, but when I re-read it all, the mention of "Flame Island" bugged me. I Googled it and it led to to a section of a book title "Egypt's Making" by Michael Rice. The following excerpt was from page 248 (I have paraphrased the relevant parts):
From the earliest times the Egyptians seem to have maintained the idea that many of the beliefs and events which characterized their 'culture'...had their origins in a far distant island. The evidence for this belief is contained in various collections of texts and inscriptions.... It would appear from these texts that the Egyptians preserved, however faintly, memories of an island, far distant towards the east, on the edge of the world, where the first and most crucial acts of creation occurred and where the first and second generation of gods had their home.
One of the most frequent symbols for the first land to emerge at the creation is the Primeval Hill or Mound. Its location is sometimes explicitly marine in character: thus in the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 484 speaks of "the Primeval Hill in the midst of the sea'. The land here is specifically a sea-girt island and not a hillock of mud revealed by the withdrawal of the waters of the inundation which has so often been described as the first land to appear at the Creation. The Primeval Place was the Island of Rest, or of Peace.
The Island of Peace was associated with the rising sun; then it became 'the Island of Flame'. It was the Divine Emerging Island which appeared from the Abyss of primeval waters.... In this context the Primeval Hill sometimes was called Ta-Tenen; Tanen was the god of the Primeval Mound in Memphite theology and a recursor of Ptah. He was also regarded, like his Sumerian counterpart, Enki, as a god of the depths. From the Island of Flame (or Fire) came, in the very beginning, Hiké the personification of the vital essence which to Egyptians was the basis of life. The island was a magical place, far distant to the east, beyond the limits of the world, a place of everlasting light where the gods were born....
Now is that interesting or what?! The way I'm looking at this is that The Island is the first place in all creation. The Egyptians believed all sources of their culture came from there, this may be why we have seen so many ruins and hieroglyphs on the Island. It tells of this "Primeval Mound" being located in the far East, at the edge of the world--this is consistent with the Island's assumed location. This alludes that the island was a magical place, and as we've seen in Lost, it most certainly seems to be.
Anyway, I could keep going but I'll allow you all to draw your own conclusions. And don't put too much faith in this--it's a theory, nothing more. My luck, I'm probably totally off-base, but I thought this was worth sharing.
Enjoy! And please do discuss!
