What I absolutely love about a show like LOST is how caught up you can get in it. Ever since the very first season—which Maria and I watched, in its entirety, during one winter weekend—the show has been wholly captivating. I love the layers. Every week I try puzzle it out, try to figure out what just happened, where the pieces fit, and the more you think about it the deeper you get. There’s so much depth to this show. As a disclaimer, I’m not an expert in Ancient History or Mythology—my History degree is mostly in modern, war-time history. Still, I’ve done some research and I want to take some time, maybe for the first time, to flush out some interesting mythological illusions and connections in LOST.

Since pretty early on in the show there’s been a lot of religious and mythological imagery both subtle and overt. Since the end of last season, when the island began to be revealed in a brand new way, it became obvious that there are distinct and clear connections to ancient mythology and, perhaps, ancient civilization. We’ve now seen the Temple, the wheel that moves the island, and the giant statute where Jacob lives. But there are plenty of more subtle nods to mythological ideas or creations, too.

The Phoenix

In Greek mythology, the Phoenix is a bird-like creature renown for burning up in its own fire and ash only to be reborn again. It represents the cycle of life and renewal.

The connection to LOST? I had forgot about this until recently, but back in the earlier seasons we’ve seen a yet-to-be-explained enormous bird-like creature. This bird makes its appearance on two occasions and both times seems to screech the name “Hurley” thus becoming known as the Hurley Bird. Interesting enough, in one of its appearances, it preceded the appearance of the Smoke Monster, who we now know is Jacob’s nemesis.

In Season 5, when we see Jacob, in person-form, visiting the Oceanic survivors earlier in their lives, he’s pictured at one point reading a book. The book, which I’ll mention again later, prominently features a bird on the cover, it’s title: Everything that Rises Must Converge [emphasis mine].

Could Jacob, somehow, be the Phoenix? The other connection is the ashes. We still don’t really know the significance of the ashes or their origin. We do know that it works, somehow, as a deterrent, a barrier which Jacob’s nemesis cannot cross. We’ve seen it used around Jacob’s cottage, in the room underneath the statue, and around the Temple. Could the ash come, somehow, from previous forms of Jacob—is this the barrier that his nemesis cannot pass? All I know is that the Hurley Bird, ashes, Phoenix connection is too strong not to mention.

The Statue

As if LOST wasn’t geeky enough, the following information was revealed by J. J. Abrams himself, through a secret code planted in a magazine he guest edited. The statue under which Jacob lives—or at least does his textile work—is the Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. What exactly does this mean, and what is this statue doing on the island? We can only speculate. It is interesting, nonetheless, that a statue of the goddess of fertility is found on an island where women most often die in child birth. Not only have pregnancies gone wrong on the island, it seems like baby-stealing is common practice, too. Remember, it was Ben who stole Rousseau’s baby, Alex, and then raised her as an Other. Was it Jacob’s orders that the baby be stolen? When and why did the Others start stealing babies? Whatever the answer(s) to these questions, it’s interesting that those kinds of activities take place on an island bearing a statue to the goddess of fertility.

Perhaps the statue was built, in Egyptian times, when those women were having trouble giving birth on the island. That’s a thought, too.

The Ankh

When Jacob asked Hurley to return to the island, with the other Oceanic Six survivors, he gave him a guitar case. We learned, when Hurley and company are brought to the Temple, that inside of the case was an ankh. The ankh is another Egyptian symbol which, as far as I can tell, represented the notion of eternal life. In Jacob’s ankh though, was a note which seemed to indicate to Dogen, the samurai who lives at the Temple, that if Sayid were to die, they’d be in serious trouble. Does the ankh represent the eternal life that Sayid would receive after being dipped into the well in the Temple? Does it represent Jacob’s eternal life? I don’t want to theorize too much but one thing I’ve just thought of is that the note to Dogen was written before Hurley boarded the plane back to the island, and well before Jacob was killed by his nemesis. Does this mean that Jacob could see the future? He knew he wouldn’t be there to give the instructions about Sayid to the Others himself? I hadn’t thought of that before.

The Lost City of Atlantis

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while, and I almost soiled myself when we first saw Ben descend into the depths of the island and turn that ancient wheel. Atlantis, I used to think, and “Atlantis!” I screamed when we first saw the wheel. There are lots of reasons this mythological connection could be very valid, and very important. First of all, the show is called LOST—could it be, then, that they’ve found the LOST City of Atlantis. That alone is interesting, I think. But there’s more.

Atlantis is fabled, by Plato, to have sunk into the sea after losing a battle to Athens. What if it didn’t sink into the sea? What if I just moved? And isn’t the sunken foot of the Taweret statue that we saw at the beginning of this season perhaps an illusion to Atlantis sinking into the sea? Maybe the explosion of the hydrogen bomb somehow undid the entire history of the island and Atlantis never moved—instead, it sunk, like Plato said. Who knows.

There’s lots of evidence that the island has an ancient history though. From it’s temple, to the wheel, to the well and the Taweret statue itself. The place is ancient, it’s an island, and it can disappear. Seems like a likely possibility then that it might be Atlantis. But there’s even more to this connection.

Poseidon: King of Atlantis

Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea (and earthquakes), is said to have been the ruler of Atlantis. What I find interesting is that, if LOST is Atlantis, then could Jacob be Poseidon, it’s ruler? Perhaps. There are certainly some compelling connections. Not least of all, Poseidon had the ability, so it seems, to cause shipwrecks. In the same way that Jacob can shipwreck people on the island? I also find it interesting that in the first scene we see Jacob in, he’s fishing.

Zeus and the Destruction of Atlantis

In some interpretations, as I understand it, Atlantis fell as a result of a lapse into sin, greed, and ungodly desires. The residents of Atlantis became sinful, fell in upon themselves, and were destroyed. But by whom? A few accounts that I’ve read suggest that the gods themselves became angry at Poseidon, and the people of Atlantis, and thought to destroy it themselves. Why is this important? Well, for a couple of reasons.

First of all, the god responsible for destroying Atlantis was Zeus. Zeus, among other things, had both the ability to control lightning and the ability to take on other forms. Does this sound familiar? Jacob’s nemesis, as we know, can take on the forms of dead people. He also has the ability to take on the form of the Smoke Monster who is made up not only of smoke, but of some kind of lightning as well.

But what of the godless, sinful residents of Atlantis? Well if Jacob can be seen as a Poseidon-like figure, and his nemesis as Zeus then perhaps their negotiations, this calling of people, bringing people to the island, is all some kind of grand contest. Perhaps Jacob needs to prove that people can live on his wonderful island without sin. Perhaps his nemesis—who has been called a protector of the island before—protects the island from sin and greed? Perhaps that was his original role although he has clearly strayed from it, so it seems. And this certainly makes the idea of free choice, that I’ve mentioned before, seem much more important. The book Jacob is reading, in the flashback I mentioned earlier, is very important. It’s Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor: a collection of short stories that explore human weakness and moral questions.

How do all these mythological aspects fit together, and what does it all mean? I have pretty much no idea. Is the island Atlantis or, instead, merely an illusion to Atlantis? And the same for all the other aspects? Again, we don’t really know. What we do know for sure is that some of this stuff exists, there are clear illusions and, then again, there are subtle ones. I may be way off base with some of the connections I’m making but, hey, isn’t that what’s so great about this show? That we can think to make these connections at all; that it can leaving us thinking so hard? I love it, personally.

The one loose thread that I can think of is Richard Alpert. He’s clearly works of Jacob in the capacity of an adviser/priest, and he is ageless. Is he an illusion to a mythological character? I don’t know. All of my research here led to dead ends.

Now I don’t claim to have the market cornered on the mythology in LOST, and certainly not on mythology in general. I’m sure I’ve missed things, and misinterpreted things too, so please comment and fill me in. This is a discussion I’d love to open up.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 7:45 am and is filed under Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.