

Jacob wove a tapestry of thread he spun himself in his chamber in the pedestal of the statue of Taweret during his many years on the Island. Ilana found a fragment of the bottom-left corner of this tapestry pinned by Jacob's knife in the cabin. On the fragment, a picture of the statue of Taweret had been woven. This was a sign for her to go looking at the statue. ("The Incident, Part 1")

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Description

Pictorial images



A fanon re-composition of the tapestry

Jacob's tapestry depicts a pair of wings outstretched from an encircled Eye of Horus, and what appear to be seventeen long arms emanating like rays out from the eye. The hands at the ends of the arms grope for nine human figures who appear to be at the mercy of the hands, while on either side a king sits in a throne and observes.

In the row below, seven human figures dance to the music of a lone harpist on the right, for eight figures total. Four water jugs sit on the floor amongst the dancers.

Several rows below that, figures labor to harvest wheat.

The row beneath that depicts three heavily crewed Ancient Egyptian sailboats debarking from the Island, with the statue of Taweret in view on the Island's shore. (The portion of the tapestry showing the statue was at some point cut from the tapestry, and a fragment was left behind in Jacob's cabin, pinned to the wall by Jacob's knife.)



The position of the tapestry as it hangs inside the statue of Taweret pedestal





Greek lines

Across the top of the tapestry is emblazoned a quote from Homer's Odyssey in upper case ancient Greek: ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ. The original sentence, modified to lower case, is σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς (transcribed as theoi tosa doien hosa phresi sēisi menoinas), belongs to Book 6, line 180 and means, "may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires". [1]

Another passage is woven into the middle of the tapestry. In full, it reads, ΘΕΟΙ ΔΕ ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ. The original sentence, modified to lowercase, is θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν (transcribed as theoi de toi olbia doien), which means, "may the gods grant thee happiness". It occurs twice in the Odyssey: Book 8, line 413 and Book 24, line 402. [2] [3]



The most complete view of the tapestry

A third passage is at the bottom of the tapestry. The part that can be seen reads, ...Σ ΜΟΝΟΙ ΤΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΟΡΑΚΑΣΙ (sic). In lower case, it should read ...ς μόνοι τὸ τοῦ πολέμου τέλος ἑωράκασι (transcribed as "...s monoi to tou polemou telos eōrakasi") which seems to be the following quote misattributed to Plato: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." If so, the word missing could be ΘΑΝΟΝΤΕΣ or ΤΕΘΝΗΚΟΤΕΣ, in lower case, θανόντες (transcribed as thanontes) or τεθνηκότες (transcribed as tethnekotes), meaning "those who have died".

Hieroglyphs

The tapestry has various series of hieroglyphs. These hieroglyphs can be found at the tips of the wings extending from the Eye of Horus, in two lines in the middle of the tapestry, and in three clusters near the bottom of the tapestry. The hieroglyphs near the Eye of Horus make reference to certain "lords" or "masters". The two lines of hieroglyphs contain words that are also shown on the Cerberus chamber pillars. The bottom three clusters represent the three Egyptian seasons: Inundation, Winter, and Summer, respectively.



Loom

In ancient times, Jacob's Mother had a similar loom. Jacob learned the trade from her. ("Across the Sea")

Destruction

In 2007, the Man in Black, disguised as John Locke, entered Jacob's chamber with Ben, who killed Jacob. Shortly afterwards, Bram entered with his men and opened fire on the imposter Locke, who vanished and returned as a billowing cloud of black smoke, killing Bram's men. Bram himself was hurled through the loom where another tapestry was just begun, destroying the loom. The original tapestry was unharmed in the confrontation. ("LA X, Part 1")

Trivia

The commentary of the enhanced episode uses the same translation of the Greek lines as given above.

The first line is similar to the start of Psalm 20:4, "May He grant you your heart's desire...", and Psalm 20:1 starts out "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!"

The commentary also gives this description:

“ The eye is surrounded by a sun disc

representing the sun god Aten

a symbol of life and prosperity ”

The hands ending from the lines were used in the Egyptian art of the Cult of Aten, created by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The cult represents one of the earliest known examples of monotheism. The Pharaoh and his wife Nefertiti are seen in reliefs receiving the blessings of the Aten (the sun) in hands, usually, but not always accompanied by ankhs. The tapestry depicts a similar scene; the sun disk is shown showering blessings onto the people below. In the case of Akhenaten only he and his direct family could receive these blessings, making it a very exclusive religion, other people could only receive blessings from the Aten via the royal family.

In the scenes where the tapestry is being woven and Jacob is alone in the chamber, the epsilons "Ε" are incorrectly written as xis "Ξ" and the final letter of the first line should be a sigma "Σ" rather than a zeta "Ζ". This error has been corrected in the scenes where Ben and Locke visit Jacob and the tapestry is finished. The last word in the bottom row has an omicron "Ο" where there should be an omega "Ω".

The Fates of Greek and Roman mythology are depicted as spinning, measuring, and cutting thread to create a web, or tapestry, of humanity's fate. (" The Incident, Part 1 ") (" Across the Sea ")