"Dead is Dead" and All That Egypt Stuff

Popular Mechanics talked to an Egyptologist about the hieroglyphics and Four-Toed Statue references in "Dead is Dead" and came up with some good info.

Lost has been hinting about the island's ancient past being Egyptian in nature for a while now -- dating back to the hieroglyphics seen when the timer in the Swan hatch hit zero. We recently saw the back of the Four-Toed Statue, which looked very Egyptian in nature, and of course in "Dead is Dead", there were all those hieroglyphics in Smokey's underground lair. Here's the main one of interest (I adjusted the brightness/contrast to make it easier to see):

And here's what Popular Mechanics has to say:

One hieroglyphic in particular caught [Ben's] eye: A strange creature kneeling in front of a snake-like (Smokey-the-monster-like?) entity. The creature on the right looks like it could easily resemble the four-toed statue. Even though the only full-size glimpse we've had of the statue was from the back, many are speculating that the statue is of Anubis, the Egyptian god associated with the afterlife who protects the deceased and guides them to the great beyond. Anubis is usually portrayed as half-jackal (top), half-human (bottom).
Allen agrees that the animal-headed human in the hieroglyphic Ben is fixated on is probably based on Anubis, though he says in actuality, no Egyptian scene looks like what's shown on Lost. "I suspect that the colossus is also meant to be Anubis, too," he says. But he points out, it's actually more of a hybrid of Anubis and Taweret, the demon-wife of the Apep, the Egyptian's original god of evil. (It's said that Apep was only present at night, and therefore any evil happenings during the daytime were attributed to Taweret). "The thing on the head definitely looks like Taweret's, but she never wears a kilt, which is clearly there in the back shot of the colossus. The colossus is probably holding two ankh-signs, like the one Anubis holds in this image, but he's holding them like Taweret holds the two signs she holds, which are 'protection' signs, not ankhs." Allen also notes that "the four toes on the statue fragment are more Taweret than Anubis, who has a human body and therefore five toes."

Another interesting fact about Taweret: She's the goddess of maternity and childbirth, the protector of women and children who was said to guard mothers and their newborn children. The creatures she's made up of—hippopotamus, crocodile and lion— are all animals that would kill to protect their young. So if the statue does have elements of Taweret, and it was destroyed, could that explain why mothers who conceive on the island can't carry to term?

Allen notes that the other hieroglyphics in Smokey's Lair are actually quite good, even though they don't really say anything. He suspects they were copied from some publication of the Book of the Dead, the ancient Egyptian funerary text.

I like the theory about the destruction of the statue causing mothers to stop being able to carry their babies to term. But Juliet just found that mothers could conceive on the island in the '70s, when the statue was long gone.

I also like that the statue doesn't directly follow a pre-existing Egyptian myth (that we know of).

What I really want to do is have a long talk with Richard about the history of the island.

(Found via DocArzt.)

TAGS: Anubis, Ben, Dead Is Dead, Fourtoed Statue, Hieroglyphics, Richard Alpert, Smoke Monster, Taweret
POST TOOLS: