Talk:Hieroglyphs

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The Statue

The Statue

The Statue

A statue of a four-toed left foot seen from the sailboat by Sayid, Sun and Jin as they were sailing in Live Together, Die Alone.

Facts

• 35-40 feet tall.
• Consists of a single, four-toed left foot.
• Is ostensibly from a colossal statue that was never finished or has since crumbled or been destroyed.
• Sayid comments: "I don't know what is more disquieting; the fact that the rest of the statue is missing or that it has four toes."
• From the 5/27 podcast, we learn the statue predates the arrival of the Dharma Initiative on the island.

Theories

• The statue may have been from the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
  • "To celebrate their victory and freedom, the Rhodians decided to build a giant statue of their patron god Helios. They melted down bronze from the many war machines Demetrius left behind for the exterior of the figure and the super siege tower became the scaffolding for the project. According to Pliny, a historian who lived several centuries after the Colossus was built, construction took 12 years. Other historians place the start of the work in 304 B.C."
  • The Colossus of Rhodes was made of bronze, and the metal wasn't wrapped around with stone. It was a wooden frame and rocks thus making this theory unlikely.
    • The Colossus was also melted down as scrap, according to legend.
  • In the book Bad Twin there is a reference to the Helios Foundation, which may support, or at least connect to this theory.
  • The Colossus is a statue of the greek god Apollo, like the chocolate bar, altough the foot doesn't belong to Rhodes's.

• The statue may be in reference to a story "Headlong Hall" by Thomas Love Peacock, chapter 4 notes:

"Here you see is the pedestal of a statue, with only half a leg and four toes remaining: there were many here once. When I was a boy, I used to sit every day on the shoulders of Hercules: what became of him I have never been able to ascertain.

• The foot bears a strong resemblance to the Foot of Colossal Statue in Via Piè di Marmo. While their is no shin on this statue and the toes are angled differently, the criss-cross of the sandals is almost exactly the same. In the picture of the real statue, the pinky toe is almost hidden in edge of the sandal. Perhaps on closer inspection the island's statue would reveal another toe.

• There is an article here where the last 2 or 3 entries talk about Bigfoot only having 4 toes. The website is bermuda-triangle.org - isn't one of the Bermuda Triangle theories that electromagnetism makes people and boats vanish?
  • The actual location of the island has never been revealed, however the island seems to be in the South Pacific, as that was where Flight 815 was traveling through. The bermuda triangle is in the Atlantic Ocean.

• The Island may have been inhabited in times previous to that of the Dharma Project. The four-toed foot may be due to a race of people with four-toed feet, or it may even be an error on part of the builder. Or perhaps they believed in a god/dess with four-toed feet.
  • In Asian mythology, Korean dragons have four toes. There have been several other references to Korea in the show (the design of the Dharma logo, Paik Heavy Industries, etc)

• A race of people with a total of 8 toes would probably use a base 8 (octal) numbering system. This may have implications in the numbers and ties to 8-sided dharma symbols.

• The Island may have been inhabited, but isolated, since prehistoric times (maybe due to an extreme continential drift sceneario), allowing for a slightly different evolutionary course to create a race four toed humans, with other physical differences being possible as well (we've only seen a foot!).

• The number of toes incorporates one of the numbers (4).
  • Perhaps the statue is of a forgotten deity, who is the source of the numbers, and had 4 toes, 8 arms, 15 fingers, 23 eyes, etc.

• Several Asian and Egyptian deities have four toes, such as Bast, the Cat-Goddess.
  • The statue could be part of one depicting Anubis which is one of the Hieroglyphs found on the countdown past zero.

• The statue could have been being transported somewhere in pieces when one of the previous Incidents happened, which caused the foot to be drawn to the island.

• The sandal the foot is wearing does look a very old style like Roman, or ancient Greek. It is possible that the island is Atlantis, which supposedly rose out of the sea thousands of years ago, and was the home of an entire, very advanced, civilization that was completely cut off from the outside world. This would explain the statue having 4 toes - the entire civilization evolved seperate from the rest of the world. Atlantis sunk back into the sea, and may now be rising again. This would require the island to be part of some kind of underwater volcano, which would explain all the black rocks everywhere. This would also explain why the Black Rock (the ship) is so far inland - it may be that 200 years ago the island was almost completely underwater, and the ship could have run aground then, and been raised up with the island since. However, the statue doesn't really look like its been underwater for thousands of years.
  • Traditionally, Atlantis is between the North American and European Continents.
    • Actually, according to Plato, Atlantis was either larger than or in between Libya (African continent) and the European continent (translations vary).
      • Actually, according to Plato, the island was 'greater' than Asia Minor. The Greek word μεζον (mezon) is usually employed to describe strength rather than size. According to Plato, the island was located "beyond the Pillars of Heracles," which are traditionally located at the Straits of Gibralter, between Spain and Morocco.
  • The probable South Pacific location of the island would allow for some link to the legendary lost continent of Mu.
    • Mu or Lemuria are better choices than Atlantis at this point. Have they found Oranbega?
  • I like the idea of it being Atlantis because supposedly the Atlanteans were much more technologically advanced than the rest of the world, and completely shut off from the rest of the world, and this is similar to what is happening on the Island. I've never heard of Mu or Lemuria though, and if they are closer to where the plane likely crashed then obviously they seem more likely.

• The rest of the statue was blown away on another 'system failure'.

• Former natives built it.

• The Hanso Foundation built it.

• The statue is the remnant of an ancient civilization, perhaps similar to Atlantis, or Lemuria. This would mean that the island has been inhabited long before even the Black Rock washed onhsore.

• Formerly a gigantic statue of Alvar Hanso. This may be what Magnus Hanso refers to because of its immense size.

• The statue consists of only a foot and is not part of a larger structure that may have been destroyed.

• Arrived via a wrecked freighter that was shipping it elsewhere - perhaps a giant movie prop.

• Could be a reference to the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. In the book giant stone limbs suddenly appear from nowhere.

• The statue was of an anthropomorphic orangutan creature, and the "thumb" toe was simply not visible as it was too far back to be seen by Sayid, Sun, and jin from their vantage on the boat.

• The statue contains one of the unexplored hatches.

• It seems an unlikely theory, but the little toe can been considered a vestigial organ and future versions of humanity may find the little toe has evolved away completely. If The Dharma Initiative is about human advancement, perhaps the statue is/was a tribute of humanity to come?
• One of the toes contains a hatch?

Trivia

• The coastal placement is reminiscent of the Easter Island moai - of course many moai are simply heads, rather than feet
• The poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley references "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone" in its ironic picturing of the monument to Ozymandias "King of Kings" Horace Smith's poem on the same subject from the same time as Shelley's, begins "In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,/Stands a gigantic Leg"

External Links

• The ebook of "Headlong Hall" by Thomas Love Peacock.