Abandoned the Idea that LOST is based on Greek mythology

Okay, I have officially abandoned my briefly held idea that LOST is based on Greek mythology. I think the writers are shooting for something bigger, something more unique, but completely unoriginal in its overall theme.

The more I've thought about it, the characters don't fit well enough for them to be mirroring Greek mythology. It's like a shoe you'd love to buy, but is unavailable in your size. That's kind of how I'm feeling about my previous theory. I'd kind of like to have put it all to rest and see it all play out according to my earlier theories, but I fear that I would be missing a bigger picture.

The recap of LOST that started this season described what are now the remaining Flight 815 survivors this way:

The Doctor
The Fugitive
The Soldier
The Rock Star
The Con Man
The Lottery Winner
The Estranged Couple
A Single Mother-To Be
The Man Whose Faith Was Lost

I think these characters themselves have deeper meanings, other than what we see on the surface. At first, I thought they might represent Apostles and early followers of Jesus, but I can't quite make that work out. Still, I think these basic character-types represent something that I am clearly missing.

As for biblical parallels, I keep thinking about how Fake Locke appealed to Sawyer (as Ben often did to Locke) that he would give him knowledge if he followed him. Remember how he tried to get Richard to come with him first and promised he'd tell him about the candidates and expressed pity that Richard didn't already know about them at all? That seems mighty reminiscent of how Satan tempted Eve in the Garden--with knowledge. He made Eve feel that God should have shared the knowledge with them all along. Fake Locke was acting very Satan-like in his effort to fool Richard and then Sawyer.

I'm just wondering if Sawyer really bought it, even though at the end of the last episode, "The Substitute," he seemed as if he had. Sawyer is a smart guy, a con man and able to see through a lot. I don't think Fake Locke is really fooling him at all. But we'll see where all of this goes.

I've often seen similarities between the show and the story of the beginning of man in the Bible. I originally thought that the Island was the Garden of Eden, as the Smoke Monster seemed a lot like what God had in mind when in " the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life."

Another interpretation reads this way:

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

The passage should be rendered thus: "And he dwelt between the cherubim at the East of the Garden of Eden and a fierce fire, or Shekinah, unfolding itself to preserve the way of the tree of life."

I also wonder about the two boys Fake Locke and Sawyer saw. The first time Fake Locke saw him alone and the boy had blood on his hands and the next time he saw him (or a very similar-looking boy, his hands were clean, but he warned Locke: "You know the rules. You can't kill him."

I wondered the first time I saw Jacob and the Man In Black if they weren't sort of like Cain and Abel. In some translations, Cain's name is supposed to be "of the evil one," or "from the evil one."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel

Cain originally tried to do good, but was jealous of God's acceptance of his brother's sacrifice. Thus the motive for murdering his brother.

From Wiki:

"In classical times, as well as more recently, Abel was regarded as the first innocent victim of the power of evil, and hence the first martyr. In the Book of Enoch (at 22:7), the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. This view is later repeated in the Testament of Abraham (at A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls:

An awful man sitting upon the throne to judge all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners. He being the first to die as martyr, God brought him hither [to the place of judgment in the nether world] to give judgment, while Enoch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down the sin and the righteousness of each. For God said: I shall not judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being descendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until the great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, and then the last judgment by the Lord Himself shall be perfect and unchangeable.

* * *

In medieval Christian art, particularly in 16th century Germany, Cain is depicted as a stereotypical ringleted, bearded Jew, who killed Abel the blonde, European gentile symbolizing Christ."

The Cain/Abel theory doesn't fit exactly even though there are parallels. But I believe their story is an echo of the larger theories we are asked to contemplate as we watch this series. We are asked to examine our ideas of fate and free will, whether doing good/ being good makes a difference in what happens to us on earth. Does fate intervene and catch us unaware, despite our best actions? We know that bad things happen to good people (Abel) and I personally feel that we shouldn't expect good people to be exempt from bad stuff. We all catch our share of hard times. Some hard times are even of our own making. But it is how we deal with those hard times or personal injustice that counts. We see that time and time again in the way that the Losties deal with disappointment and injustice in their own lives. It seems that everyone is a better person (except Randy Nations, Locke's boss) in the Alternate Lost Timeline. What makes that true?

And will Jacob only grow stronger through death? Probably!

Exciting stuff, this last season of LOST.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After I posted this on FB, a friend wrote to ask me what I thought the writers were going after that was bigger than Greek Mythology, and here was my response:

Greek mythology was fashioned in an effort to make sense of the laws of nature and the heart of man and his place in the universe, and to reassure him that there is some structure amongst the chaos, as most humans find that a tremendous comfort. The characters were immortal archetypes and in that way become important in study of the human psyche. No argument that the Greeks' stories touched on all the big themes in their varied forms: power, love, loss, sorrow, infidelity, envy, courage, corruption, parental responsibility, parental neglect, not to mention golden applies and endless bloodshed. But in the end, that was only one lens on the world, one cultural reference from a specific age.

However, my feeling is that LOST looks through many different scopes, touches on many ancient and modern themes to answer the big questions. The reason we're here, why we were born . . . The Meaning of It All.
Fate or Freewill?

And that is why I find it so infinitely fascinating! The literary and cultural layering is deep and provokes thought and discussion. Isn't that what we need to be doing instead of watching reality T.V. until it runs out our ears?

But hey, I dropped Philosophy Class, so this is probably all I got.