Egypt in Lost
From Lostpedia
- "Egypt in Lost" redirects here. For Egyptian broadcast and fan information, see: Egypt.
Several allusions to Ancient Egypt are featured in Lost. Any discussion of Egyptian mythology in Lost should be prefaced, however, with the warning that the Egyptian pantheon comprises over five thousand years of cultural evolution, and various gods were defined and worshipped differently depending on the time and place as well as the balance of power among the different city-states that made up Egypt.
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Locations
- The Four-toed statue depicts an Egyptian deity. It was confirmed to be Taweret, a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth, but also the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil.
Hieroglyphs and symbols
- The hieroglyphs on the countdown timer are red and black. In Egyptian mythology, red is the color of chaos, destruction and evil. Additionally, hieroglyphs inscribed in red in Egyptian ritual books were meant to be emphasized and were often used for significant passages, titles, or the names of gods.
- According to the producers, the hieroglyphs refer to the "Underworld".
- Hieroglyphs on the Temple and in the frozen wheel Chamber refer to "resurrection".
Engravings
- A large engraving in the back of The Temple appeared to depict the Egyptian God Anubis and the Monster.("Dead Is Dead"). Anubis is a jackal-headed god associated with death, mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. He is often depicted weighing the hearts of the deceased against a feather symbolic of the goddess Maat (goddess of truth and order) in "the hall of truth", where the dead are judged before the gods; souls who fail this judgement are fed to the monster Ammit. Anubis is also called He Who Keeps The Gates, guarding the boundary between the real world and the realms of the gods.
Religion
- Paul, LaFleur's predecessor as DHARMA Initiative Chief of Security, was wearing an ankh around his neck when he was killed by the Others. ("LaFleur")
- In the tale of the shipwrecked sailor from Ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom, a shipwrecked sailor confronts a monster on a mysterious and bountiful island, and the monster tells the sailor that once he leaves the island, it will become water and he will not be able to return.
- The first name of Horace Goodspeed is homonymous with "Horus", the Greek name for a falcon-headed Egyptian god. In myth, the eye of Horus was wounded when he battled with Seth for the throne of Egypt, but was healed by Hathor.
- Jacob's tapestry depicts the "Eye of Horus" (also known as the Eye of Ra or the Wedjat), an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities. In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It originally was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet, who later became associated with Bast, Mut, and Hathor as well. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye.
- Ra also represents the Sun. The sun with hands radiating from it in stone carvings found in the city of "el-Amarna/Akhenaten" are very similar to Jacob's tapestry. The Pharaoh Akhenaten is known for being the first to encourage monotheism; he set up a new city in his own name and worshipped Aten of the Sun as the one true god.
Other
- While Walt is studying birds of Australia, he mentions he doesn't care about birds of Australia and says "shouldn't we be studying birds of Egypt or something?" ("Special").
- Sayid and Essam Tasir were roommates at Cairo University and went to the beach at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula before their English exam. ("The Greater Good")
- When Locke visits Hurley in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, Hurley is drawing a picture of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Sphinxes were tomb guardians in Egyptian myth and were associated with the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet. ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham").
- When a drunk Roger Linus comes to chase off Jack from a classroom Jack is clearly seen erasing a lesson on Egyptian hieroglyphs from the chalkboard. ("Some Like It Hoth")
Trivia
- The biblical Jacob spent his last 17 years living in Egypt.
- Lost University offers a course on hieroglyphs.
