Four toed update
August 12, 2009 by Donald Mikhail and Charlotte
Filed under Podcast news
8/13/2009 Update
The Official Lost magazine published this picture of the official model for the statue, sculpted by Jim Van Houten. The model was used as a reference when creating the CGI version of the statue as shown in “The Incident, Parts 1 & 2.”
Older updates on statue….
The Ankh was the Egyptian Hieroglyphic character that read eternal life LATIN for “cross with a handle”.
Another possibility is Tawaret, in Egyptian history, she was seen as a deity of protection in pregnancy and Pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image could also be found on knives made from hippopotamus ivory, which would be used as wands in rituals to drive evil spirits away from mothers and children.
So it appears Annubis is out of the question the statue appears to be more of a tawaret adaptation with some characteristics of other Egyptian Gods. Most noticeable is that Tawaret is depicted as pregnant female, which is still not out of the question because we have yet to see the front of our good old statue. Recently Sobek has been brought to my attention which is also a possibility at this time. Sobek is often depicted with a huge headdress though.
Now If we can take this cloth as an actual depiction of the side of the statue, then Sobek appears to be the likely choice, but I can still can’t ignore the fact that Sobek carries a long staff while Tawaret carries two Ankhs, just like shown in Lost. Sobek also wears a huge headdress while Tawarets head looks nearly exact to the four toed statue’s.
I think it looks more like Sobek due to the long-ish snout that seems to more closely resemble that of the crocodile rather than the hippo. However, it does seem to be more like a cross between the two: snout and ankhs of Sobek, headdress and feet of Taweret. I wonder if the statue represents the two opposing forces on the island, Jacob and his nemesis, and if one of them wins, the statue will be remade in the image of either one or the other, the ultimate victor.
Anna spoke the words I wanted to say. Looks like a combo – and her explanation of why the combo is very good as well.
The light and dark in an eternal battle (game) embodied in statue form.
So how the heck does that thing get knocked down?
yo
Anna’s theory is very interesting.
If I had to guess, I would go for Tawaret, although the head looks more like a crocodile, but still, all the other features are the same as Tawaret, as far as we know.
I also heard someone suggest Set/Seth, but I don’t think that one fits. Although de description is interesting: he took the forms of a crocodile and a hippo from time to time. And he was evil, constantly fighting with the gods of light. And he became buddies with Apep (Smokey). But all in all that seems more a statue where the Esau guy would live, I would say. But as Doc Jensen said: a good entity dwelling in an evil statue is a nice metaphor for the possibility of redemption.
On the tapestry of jacob there was a prominent eye of horus. Because of that I looked up the relationships of both gods with Horus.
Tawaret: Tawaret was the concubine of the god Seth but deserted him for Horus’ side in the dispute over the Egyptian throne
Sobek: The Book of the Dead suggests that Sobek’s closeness to Horus can be traced back to his participation in the birth of this god. Sobek was responsible for calling Isis and Nephthys to aid in the protection of the dead. He was the god from the “Dark Water.” It was believed, in some sects, that Sobek was the creator of the world. These people believed that he arose from the “Dark Water” and put the world in order.
So…that wasn’t very fruitfull, they both have some sort of tie with Horus.
If I look at the Sobek description again, the ‘dark water’ and ‘protection of the dead’ are fitting of the island…
Good question Jed!! How will it be blown up?
A part me is still hoping its Anubis, being a Mummy fan and all. I think its a variation of more than just one God. You all have good ideas (except Anna)too bad we have no real way to confirm anything yet.
Hey Donals, speaking of mummy’s: did Ilana’s eye-shot in her flashback remind you of a mummy too?
If I remember my research into Tawaret right, Tawaret is supposed to have characteristics of a hippo, lioness AND crocodile. The depictions I’ve seen also include a long snout like the one depicted here. My vote is for Tawaret hands down.
ABC’s recap of the finale identifies the statue as Tawaret, so I feel quite confident that she is who the statue represents, even though all of the features don’t exactly match.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=162212&d=201648
Slart, some other podcasters and myself noticed that the other day and now we are debating if that recap is canon. Lostpedia has also named the statue tawaret.
I can agree with that. Hopefully we will get something more concrete to go on next season!
it has to be Taweret. youd hope the goofs at ABC would have at least asked which Egyptian deity to type into their VH-1 bubbles… and got an accurate response. awesome pic! it was probably 3-D scanned and CGI tooled a little for clarity. maybe the reason theyre obscuring the face so much in the show is because the sculpture leaves it kind of ambiguous between the two. have to admit, its kind of a cross between both aesthetically.
if you watch this video posted after the season finale, they have a pretty close mask of the 4 toed statue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxtYLDItQw