“Where are we?” LOST’s biggest question

First off I’d like to say this is going to be a bit long, so I thank those of you that actually read through. Secondly I want to apologize if this has already been overly discussed, I searched it out and didn’t really find anything like it so here goes.

I wrote a theory on this in between Seasons 2 and 3 on a former lost site, since then I have just gathered more related info and details from the show to add to it. I decided to update it and repost a new revised theory.
I am a huge fan of both Greek and Egyptian mythology and cultures, in turn, I have studied both at length. We all know there are many correlations of both Greek and Egyptian reference in the Lost world, and I found that these references actually point to what Island they are on, or the ones the writers have based it on.

Let’s start at the beginning with Charlie’s question “Where are we?”. When they all go to see if they can get a signal from the transceiver, where they first hear Danielle’s message. That is one of the biggest questions of the show. As the show has unfolded we have learned of the hatches and all the Dharma stations other than the Lamp-post and the Looking Glass, are all named after symbols of Apollo, even the candy bars are called Apollo Bars. So the Dharma folks named their places after the Greeks, The Others seem to have a Egyptian decent or history, we see that in the hieroglyphs, the statue, and the glyph of Anubis summoning the smoke monster in the temple. So we have the 2 conflicting sides taking 2 different ancient cultures, which is ironic if you look at it, because the Greek and Roman pantheon of Gods is all based on the Egyptian’s just different stories and names for their gods. Even the Egyptian’s was taken from the Sumerians, so throughout these cultures you have parallel stories. In both cultures there is a story of a magical island.
The first is the Egyptian legend of the “Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor” c. 2200BC. Where an Egyptian Sailor finds himself the sole survivor lost on a paradise island. As he finds food is plentiful he gathers up some to eat, makes a sacrifice to the gods and before he can eat any, he was interrupted. “Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook, and the earth was moved. I uncovered my face, and I saw that a serpent drew near.” Sounds very much like our Lostie’s first night with Smokie knocking down the trees.

Next, it talks of the serpent carrying him off in it’s mouth to it’s resting place, unharmed. (Smokie again dragging people through the jungle to the temple.) Now the description of the serpent in the story doesn’t match Smokie, per say, but it describes it very much like the image we see in the Hieroglyph of Anubis summoning a serpent, when Ben confronts Smokie.

The serpent then asks him what has brought him here. The sailor tells him the story of his arrival and the serpent replies to him to have faith and not to not be sad, that in 4 months a ship will pass that will take him back to his home land.
As the day arrived, the ship did come, just as the serpent had said it would. The Serpent tells him “when you shall depart from this place, you shall never more see this isle; it shall be changed into waves.” The sailor insists that he will tell the Pharoah of this place so that he may see this “isle of the blessed”
The sailor was returned to his homeland of Egypt and was brought before the Pharoah to tell his story and present the gifts of inscense, sweet woods and perfumes, etc. Never finding the island again. (This sounds very familiar with Widmore’s struggle to return to the island.)

This is the Egyptian Island of myth, the earlier of the 2 stories. Where as the Others, seem to hold onto a much older culture than Dharma, who have seemed to be taking on the younger Greek mythology. The Greeks have a lost island as well called, Adelos, a paradise floating aimlessly at sea invisible to the rest of the world, which was turned into the island of Delos by Poseidon.
In Greek mythology the island of Delos is where Leto, a mortal mistress of Zeus gives birth to Artimis and Apollo.
Hera cursed Leto to never give birth on land nor sea, nor under the sun. Zeus supposedly begged Poseidon to anchor the floating island of Adelos(meaning the “invisible”) to the bottom of the Agean sea with 4 diamond chains, in doing so it would allow the birth, and as to not offend the curse laid upon Leto by Hera. In the stories Delos, is in fact set into the Agean Sea, and is where the birth is supposed to have taken place, even marking the birth by a flock of Swans circling the island.
Greek mythological text is divided on this myth, one side says that Poseidon did indeed make Adelos(the invisible) into Delos(the visible) and anchored it to the sea floor. The other half of the text says that Poseidon did not want to give up his secret island, as it floated aimlessly at sea only he could find it. It still states that Zeus pleaded with him, but some say he only gave up “part of his island”, keeping his island for himself.
Now if we look at Delos from this part of the myth, we can get a whole new look at in new light.
We know of Hydra Island, we know it moves with the big island, so we can guess that it is somehow attached, most likely a peninsula that has eroded away the causway that once connected it above water. Still being connected underwater giving the illusion of being a seperate island. Could Poseidon have just taken another one of these connected (islands) to create Delos?

The Gods of Greek mythology were jealous, greedy, and covetous. They scheemed, and plotted with each other, and played grand game of manipulation with the mortals upon Earth. (sounds very much like Jacob/MiB). This would make me believe in the half of the scholars that claimed Poseidon gave Zeus only part of Adelos and kept the Island for himself.

The very origin of the word Adelos itself plays into the Losticon. Adelos means the Invisible, but the origin of Adelos comes from the Greek word “aadhlov” which means negative particle. (Could this be our Negatively Charged Exotic Matter that Dr Chang talked about in the Orchid video?) could it be another word for dark matter? The Island of Adelos was thought to possess many mystical properties, and also a guardian or protector.
There are many other clues and references that allude to Delos and Apollian mythology, The Hatch names, Swan, Tempest, Hydra, Arrow, Staff, Pearl. All pointing to the Greeks.
So we have the DI using the Greeks and the Others using the Egyptians, but when you look at both stories for each Island in both cultures, you find that they both describe a “paradise” unable to be found again once you leave, with a guardian of the island itself, which basically gives you permission to stay. Both islands also are supposedly located in the South Pacific
When studied in depth we find that both islands are in fact, the same place, just different stories from different cultures.
I find it nicely ironic that the writers of the show have laid out the old vs the new in this way.
The Others- Egyptian culture- older time frame
Dharma- Greek younger or “newer” time frame
This duelality is portrayed perfectly with the conflict between the Others and the DI in Season 5. Representing the common ideals between the two, but showing the conflict of methodology.
Just as with the Greeks vs Egyptians.

I thank anyone who read through this, this being long, yet only scratching the surface of the idea. You can find out more about both islands through these links.
Island of the Shipwrecked Sailor:

Adelos/Delos Myth: