Though it was obvious that it was not Anubis (as I had personally thought), I also wasn’t entirely convinced that it was Taweret.  Suddenly, Sobek, an Egyptian god that resembled the face of a crocodile seemed a likely candidate as well.  I did post over at Sledgeweb’s Lost Stuff that Taweret seemed the most likely possibility at the time but I also didn’t really want to believe it, simply because there were so many better deities in my opinion.  But ABC has settled the speculation for us, and in a rather quiet manner, I might add.  According to the most recent recap at ABC.com, the statue is in fact Taweret.   I know, I know, many of you saw this from the very first moment we caught a glimpse at the back of the statue, so go ahead and use the comments below to proclaim your brilliance, cleverness, and aptitude for figuring out the mysteries of Lost, something I obviously suck at.

And now, a little about Taweret.  Wikipedia has this to say about the Egyptian Goddess:

Her name means (one) who is great. When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, evil during the day then was envisaged as being a result of Taweret’s malfeasance.

As the counterpart of Apep, who was always below the horizon, Taweret was seen as being the northern sky, the constellation roughly covering the area of present-day Draco, which always lies above the horizon. Thus Taweret was known as mistress of the horizon, and was depicted as such on the ceiling of the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.

Later they go into more detail about how Taweret became known as the Goddess of fertility and child birth:

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. 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.

In most subsequent depictions, Taweret was depicted with features of a pregnant woman. In a composite addition to the animal-compound she was also seen with pendulous breasts, a full pregnant abdomen, and long, straight human hair on her head.

As a protector, she often was shown with one arm resting on the sa symbol, which symbolized protection, and on occasion she carried an ankh, the symbol of life, or a knife, which would be used to threaten evil spirits.

As the hippopotamus was associated with the Nile, these more positive ideas of Taweret allowed her to be seen as a goddess of the annual flooding of the Nile and the bountiful harvest that it brought. Ultimately, although only a household deity, since she was still considered the consort of Apep, Taweret was seen as one who protected against evil by restraining it.

When Set fell from grace in the Egyptian pantheon, as a result of being favoured by the unpopular Hyksos rulers, he gradually took over the position of Apep, as the god of evil. With this change away from Apep, Taweret became seen only as the concubine of Set. She was seen as concubine rather than wife, as Set already was married to the extremely different goddess, Nephthys, to whom no parallels could be drawn. It then was said that Taweret had been an evil goddess, but changed her ways and held Set back on a chain.

So I have to ask this question, does the reveal of the statue being Taweret give any semblance or meaning behind Jacob and his Nemesis (being called Esau by many of you)?  Could Jacob and Esau be represented in Lost as some form of Apep and Set, deities associated at times as the Gods of Evil?  It seems obvious that Jacob “took” something from Esau in order for him to have such a desire to kill him, maybe it was the taking of his status as the God of Evil.  It would certainly put an interesting spin on things, if both of them turned out to be some manifestation of this tale.  Of course, that doesn’t make much sense when we look at how Jacob was wearing white, as if the producers wanted us to realize he was a “good” guy, and he also seems to have a lot of faith in mankind as well, a trait I wouldn’t expect to see in the God of Evil.  But still, interesting none the less!

My theory is that Ilana is a character intended to represent the Egpytian goddess Sekhmet.

Ilana is clearly in charge on the island, a strong female leader among her people, and Sekhmet was a warrior, protector and hunter. Sekhmet was commonly referred to as a lioness, and from a purely physical perspective, Ilana’s beautiful hair can certainly be described as a mane.

But Sekhmet is also known as both the Lady of the Flame and Devouring Flame, which is quite significant given that when we last saw Jacob, he had been kicked into the fire by Not-Locke/Mystery Man.

One of Sekhmet’s other designations was the Lady of Life, because she was able to cure illnesses and heal the wounded. Enter Jacob. He approached her at the hospital and asked for help, and we can assume that this took place before the events of 2007 on the island during the finale. If Jacob knew ahead of time that Mystery Man was going to take advantage of the loophole as Not-Locke and finally attempt to kill him, perhaps this favor he asked of Ilana involved protection from the future inferno, followed by her restorative powers. Further, I believe that Jacob was wearing gloves in the hospital because they had to avoid physical contact prior to the moment of salvation.

Before being tossed in the flames, Jacob told Not-Locke that “they’re coming,” and he very well may have been alluding to Ilana and her people. They were just outside of the statue, and I have a feeling that (at the beginning of Season 6) we will see Ilana rescue and/or save Jacob.

We are not privy to how, when and where Ilana sustained her injuries. But if Ilana is indeed an embodiment of Sekhmet, some of you might be wondering why she herself was susceptible to bodily harm. I would venture to guess that her gift may be activated or enhanced upon arrival on the island, which we know has unique healing properties itself.

Relevant side note: when you combine the names Ilana and Sekhmet, one of the applicable anagrams is heal mistaken.

In addition, there are some who believe that Sekhmet was the daughter of the Sun God RA, so it isn’t out of the question that Ilana could be Richard Alpert’s daughter. According to Alpert, he is ageless because “Jacob made me this way.” So if Jacob had the power to bestow eternal life upon a man, who’s to say that he did not also bequeath that man’s daughter with a predisposition for rejuvenation. That Ilana appeared to recognize Jacob in the hospital seems to indicate that they were already acquainted with one another, and it is logical to assume that she has been to the island before because she is more than familiar and comfortable with the layout of it.

There is great debate about exactly which Egyptian god or goddess is represented by the statue on the island, and Sekhmet may be a candidate; she has an Ankh in her right hand and a solar disc on her head. That being said, I am convinced that the infamous statue on Lost is an aggregate of several Egyptian idols rather than one in particular.

So there you have it.  To be honest, at first I was trying to figure out if Ilana was injured after a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel and poor landing or reception in Tunisia, or if she herself was somehow the one who was kicked into the fire. But neither of these theories seemed feasible after analyzing the logistics of both situations.

I was hesitant to follow this path, to compare yet another character to a historical Egyptian figure. Because despite the obvious mythology that exists on the island, I am still optimistic that this lore does not explain the entire series. To be frank, I will be disappointed if that is the case.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to discuss and dissect this theory in the Comments, but please be constructive!

[For other theories and episode analysis, please visit Jo's LOST blog]