The Statue of Sobek
My theory is as such…
We long thought the statue might be Anubis, in what we saw in the season 5 finale however while not a direct shot looked more like Sobek. This god is he who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world. He was depicted as a man with the head of a crocodile and from the side it sure looked like the statue had crocodile teeth to me. (Note: In Greek this god was called Suchos).
This is where it gets more interesting for me…
Sobek’s ambiguous nature led many Egyptians to look on him as a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself. He had a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part himself.
When depicted in Egyptian art he was almost always depicted with an ankh as we saw in our statue representing his ability to undo evil and cure ills and illness.
I feel that Jacob is the embodiment of Sobek, I am working on a theory to help explain who his “evil” counterpart would be and there is a list of likely candidates so it may take some time.
nice research. i am patiently awaiting the research on his counterpart.
The interesting part of that entry is this “Gradually, Sobek also came to symbolize the produce of the Nile and the fertility that it brought to the land; its status thus became more ambiguous”
“…the PRODUCE of the Nile and the fertility that it brought to the land.”
In the show Ben turns and says “Like your Moses or something…”
In fact he is something like Moses, whom was the product of the Nile. Which would mean to me that Locke holds some sort of answer to the fertility issue on the island.
And like Moses, Locke was orphaned and adopted.
I am thinking it is Set who would naturally oppose Sobek. As Sobek was a repairer of the evil Set had done in the opinion of many.
According to legend Sobek brings together many elements that have been separated by evil.
nice. what do you make of the anubis picture summoning smokey?
Great research. Looking forward to more on this!
I like your research and your right it does look like a crocodile mouth from the side but i went and did some research and noticed that EVERY picture of sobek he has 5 toes because he is a crocodile and anubis since he is a dog has only 4 in the front and 1 on the back and the statue only has 4 plus when ben was in the temple we clearly saw anubis. Anubis is the God of after life and i think maybe jacob is anubis that has brought Locke back to life.
i found this very interesting as i was researching Sobek…. The Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead both cite Sobek’s assistance of the deceased. He restores the deceased’s eyes and mouth, protects him/her from Set, and leads them to “heaven”. Dont really know how it relates but thought it was interesting.
Thanks both for the good words. Eko the Book of Dead shows Anubis performing the measurement that determines the worthiness of the deceased to enter the realm of the dead. I think Smokey weighs the value of the person it encounters and decides their fate as in if they are ready to advance to the afterlife. This is referred to as the”weighing of the heart”.
So I look at Mr. Echo for example, we thought at first he was spared because he was not afraid. I think he was not taken to the afterlife because he had more work to do, once he completed his work and was allowed to progress to the underworld/afterlife.
Great find Juliets, I think that might tie in nicely. Also I would like to add about the statue that I definitely do not think it is Anubis based on what he is holding in his hands. Anubis was almost always always depicted wearing a ribbon and holding a flail in the crook of its arm.
Those who do away utterly sins and offences, and who are in the following of the goddess Hetepsekhus, are the god Sobek and his associates who dwell in the water. The goddess Hetepsekhus is the Eye of Ra. Found this also…. dont know if it means anything , just sounds cool…. wasnt there a question about an EYE at some point????
Yeah that sounds very cool… hmm the eye I remember some discussion about and Locke saying he looked into the eye of the island. Maybe that was it?
Hi Thorn, I read up on Sobek, and it would appear your thoughts on this may be correct.
Wikipedia states: “Many people think that Sobek was revealed as the four-toed statue in the season finale of the fifth season of Lost, as the 4-toed statue on the island. This is just speculation so far”.
Although it may be speculation, it would appear to be fairly accurate!
Nice find!
nice wiki read….said the same thing last night….he also represented the four elemental gods…RA – fire SHU – Air GEB – Earth OSiris – water
I would have to agree with you guys… I personally, as a Christian, find it strangely insulting to my own personal intelligence that so many people think this is about God and Satan. The fact that this is about the Egyptian religion is plainly obvious.
Did any of you notice when Jack had his encounter with Ben’s dad in the classroom, that what was written on the chalkboard in the background was ALL about Egypt?
The statue is obviously Sobek, and “they are coming” must be the gods that Sobek cries out to to help on behalf of humanity.
I personally would love it to be about God and Satan, but there’s no way it can be as far as I can tell.
I like the Sobek theory a lot!!
But just to play Devil’s Advocate…
I found another website putting out that TAWARET may be the god depicted in the statue.
Tawaret had the head of a hippopotamus (but, looking at some Egyptian artwork that “hippo” head looks similar to the limited view of the head we’d had so far–after all, crocodiles don’t have pointy ears), is often depicted holding an ankh, often depicted as having FOUR-TOES and was seen as a protector of pregnant women.
Considering the problems surrounding pregnancy on the island this is a possibility.
Also, I read that Tawaret was originally an evil god, who changed her ways and tried to hold Set back… which also connects to themes of redemption…
The statue was definitely a reptile. I was very excited by this as soon as I saw it.
It was AWESOME!!!
What about the statue as Tawaret? Also depicted as a crocodile, with the same hat looking thing as the statue and Tawaret statues are associated with holding ankhs in each hand as well. Not to mention its the fertility goddess, something to do with why woman couldn’t get pregnant later on? Not quite sure of any connection with Jacob tho, his tapestry does depict art done in the Amarna style, which was a sharp break with traditional Egyptian artistic traditions. Also associated with monotheism in ancient Egypt, could just be a coincidence of images
Croc head for sure!
Sobek makes total sense. I’m really looking forward to your theory.
Cheers 😉
I believe the statue is not Sobek, but Taweret… Given the issues of pregnancy and childbirth on the island, it makes sense
Early during the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians came to see female hippopotami as less aggressive than the males, and began to view their aggression only as one of protecting their young and being good mothers, particularly since it is the males that are territorially aggressive. Consequently, Taweret became seen, very early in Egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth.
The actor who played Benjamin confirmed that the statue is supposed to be Taweret.
Soncickat has it. The figure is a hippopotamus and not a crocodile. It def has a blunted snout and EARS. Croc’s don’t have ears and have flat noses. This BIG key here is that Taweret is a protector of mothers and childbirth! She is also wife of Apep… the serpent destroyer and original god of evil. This fits in well with a theory I had some time ago that smoky is the eater of souls judged unpure by the scales.
Along with that, I am reminded of the title of an episode “This Place is Death.”
Don’t forget Horus (aka Horace)
I am not sold on Taweret, the legs are all wrong and she is not usually depicted holding ankhs.
Sobek is however and in the statues of him from the period he is depicted with blunt ears for example this statue: http://www.biasci.com/polyorg/Sobek_idol.jpg
You also have to watch the show again and look at the sharp teeth depicted on the statue, not flat Hippo teeth.
The Taweret theory goes back a ways I even thought it might be accurate but I am not feeling it after this last episode. I of course could be wrong it is just a theory but it definitely looked more like a Croc than a Hippo to me.
Nice find there Dabs I see the wiki people are already all over this possible reveal. Thanks for the info!
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=162212&d=201648
“And as the camera pulls back, we see what we’ve been waiting to see since we first glimpsed that four-toed foot over three years ago… the towering, majestic statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret.”
I guess this takes down another mystery, right?
Taweret or Sobek, both seem a lot alike to me, but I think this statement on abc’s website pretty much confirms it’s Taweret.
It seems to be confirmed to be Taweret by this plot summary:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=162212&d=201648
It makes sense to me that the statue is actually Sobek because this God is often represented in water. And, it looks like a man, rather than a Goddess. But, Sonickat meant that Michael Emerson had said it actually WAS Tawaret. And i’ve seen this interessting link on the web, comparing a Tawaret Statue to the Statue on the island…
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/9403/statue01.jpg
Ok, my theory is sketchy, and doesn’t answer everything, but for what it’s worth, here it is. But first of all, let me say that people’s attempts to draw Christian/Judaic parallels from this show, are wasting their time. Originally I thought there may have been a link, but after this season, I am sure there is nothing remotely relating to Christianity. Jason is not God, and the MIB is not Satan.
Remember that in Christianity, God is a triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and Satan is nothing more than a fallen angel, even though he inhabits the serpent in the garden of Eden to tempt Eve. Likewise, the island is not the garden of Eden. Did you ever see a tree of knowledge of good/evil, or a tree of life on the island of Lost?
In the Lost series, I think that the Spirits of the Egyptian Demon/Deity(s) SOBEK & SET inhabit the bodies of Jacob & the Man In Black (MIB). Think of them kinda like Ying/Yang – but even that’s probably not the best analogy.
Jacob and MIB probably first came to island many years ago and were inhabited by these Demon/Deities. MIB/Set is tired of the stagnation of the never-ending struggle and is trying to make it change. He is looking for a loop hole to end it all, regardless of the outcome. Jacob/Set is remaining true to the way it’s always been – keep to the old ways.
Jacob = Sobek
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek and http://www.fruitofthenile.com/sobek.htm for info on Sobek. Sobek was a repairer of the evil which Set had done. Sobek brings together elements that has been separated by evil. The Egyptian Book of the Dead cites Sobek’s assistance of the deceased. He restores the deceased’s eyes and mouth, protects him/her from Set and leads them to heaven.
MIB = Set
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mythology) and http://www.fruitofthenile.com/set.htm for info on SET. He instigates change where things have grown stagnant, whether it be for good or evil. The distinction is irrelevant to him. In this sense he brings about new beginnings, even if they should arrive unwelcomely. For this reason, he is a demon-deity of change, confusion and chaos. Also, anyone who has read any of the Conan books, knows that Set is depicted as Snake-like.
For this reason, I suspect the smoke monster (which is somewhat snake-like) comes from Set, who is pronouncing judgment on whoever it comes in contact with. Remember it judged Mr. Echo. Also Ben went to the smoke monster temple (with the false John Locke impersonated by MIB/Set) to be judged. This explains why Ben was told to do whatever false John Locke said. When the real John Locke first encountered the smoke-monster, he was judged to be useful to Set and didn’t get killed. However the real John was told by Christian he’d have to die in order to bring back the Oceanic 6. This makes me think that Christian was impersonated by MIB/Set also.
So in the season finale, MIB sees the ship, and there is some question of whether the ship is leaving or coming, but I think it was coming, and I’m guessing Richard Alpert was on it. MIB asks why Jacob brought the ship to the island — is he still trying to prove MIB wrong? MIB says they come, fight, destroy, corrupt, and it always ends the same. Jacob tells him it only ends once, and everything else is just… progress. MIB says he wants to kill Jacob, and one day he’s going to find a loophole. Jacob says he’ll be right there.
So the big question for me is: does Ben’s knifing of Jacob in the present going get undone by Jack’s setting of the hydrogen bomb in 1977? Wouldn’t all the ‘others’ (a.k. followers of Jacob/Sobek) be completely annihilated? Or does the fact that it’s only the plutonium core, make it so the Others don’t die…maybe Jacob/Sobek saves them somehow? After all, he probably needs those worshippers. Also, maybe there’s other demon/deities on the island as well. Maybe Osiris & Isis are inhabiting Bernard and Rose for all we know. Hmmm…it’s a dilemma which could go any direction…all of which I suspect will have loopholes in the explaining of all the minor details.
Like I said, my theory is sketchy.
I just looked at the pics of the statues. The do look very similar, but he statue in lost did look very reptialian in my opinion. That was my first thought when I saw it, so I have to go w/ Sobek…
Just read the summary, guess it has to be tawret then.
Sidenote: I loved how Kate had the NKOTB lunchbox, I was obsessed in 7th grade.
Yeah to be honest the statue on the show looks so much more like Sobek. Even the legs are completely wrong if you look it it for it to be Tawret which has very distinct legs.
http://homepage.mac.com/scarab1/graphics/bgrounds/taweret.jpg
However… I just read the recap on ABC’s site and it says “And as the camera pulls back, we see what we’ve been waiting to see since we first glimpsed that four-toed foot over three years ago… the towering, majestic statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret.”
So I imagine we have our answer there.