Ok, so after seeing the huge Egyptian statue, I’m convinced that Jacob is some sort of spirit/god/protector/etc. of the afterlife. One would have to brush up on their Egypt and Greek mythology to wrap this around their brain. I’ll show how Egyptian mythology has it’s influence followed by ties with Greek mythology in 2 ways…
1. Richard and Horace.
So in the 70s the DI and Hostiles had been in conflict for years and eventually formed a truce. The leaders of the groups are Richard and Horace. To understand the Egyptian mythology tie-in, look at the story of Set and Horus (ring a bell?)…
Horus = Patron of: the living Pharaoh, rulers, law, war, young men, light, the sun, many others depending on the particular variant, Lower Egypt. This is DI leader Horace (duh).
Set = Patron of: winds, storms, chaos, evil, darkness, strength, war, conflict, Upper Egypt. This is Hostile leader/consigliere/spokesman Richard Alpert.
The conflict: In the Legend of Osiris, Set kills Osiris and scatters his body, then claims the throne of the gods for his own. He is later struck down by Horus, the son of Osiris, who restores order to the world and sets up the pharaohs as the guardians of Maat. Set and Horus continue to battle for control of the world (the Island), setting up an epic conflict of good versus evil.
2. Jacob and Horace
Think back to last season, when we first meet Horace. Locke stumbles upon Horace while looking for Jacob’s cabin. Horace is already deceased, but is cutting down a tree, over and over and over again. Kind of like the Greek myth of Sisyphus. According to Locke, Horace is the one that built Jacob’s cabin (evident by the blueprints found on his corpse later on). Why did Horace build Jacob’s cabin????? The answer lies in the giant Egyptian statue we saw in last night’s episode. I think, like many others, that this is the statue of the Egyptian god Anubis. Could this be what Jacob is?
Egyptian mythology: Jacob = Anubis = Patron of: mummification, and the dead on their path through the underworld
Greek mythology: Jacob = Hades = Ruler of the Underworld
So how does that relate to Horace and the Cabin??? Here is the story of Sisyphus and the reason why he was condemned to do a laboring task over and over again….
“He was notorious as the most cunning knave on earth. His greatest triumph came at the end of his life, when the god Hades came to claim him personally for the kingdom of the dead. Hades had brought along a pair of handcuffs, a comparative novelty, and Sisyphus expressed such an interest that Hades was persuaded to demonstrate their use - on himself.
And so it came about that the high lord of the Underworld was kept locked up in a closet at Sisyphus’s house for many a day, a circumstance which put the great chain of being seriously out of whack. Nobody could die. A soldier might be chopped to bits in battle and still show up at camp for dinner. Finally Hades was released and Sisyphus was ordered summarily to report to the Underworld for his eternal assignment.”
Does Horace ‘imprison’ Jacob in the Cabin? Is this why some people don’t stay dead on the island? Was Horace punished by Jacob for imprisoning him much like Sisyphus was by Hades - only in this case - chopping a tree over and over and over? There is more to come about Horace’s role on the island…
Boom! Egyptian and Greek mythology applied!
