Your Voice: John Locke as Hercules
Submitted by Pearson Moore
www.pearsonmoore.com
I composed a Lost theory that I think may provide hope for those who believe the story has too many elements to be resolved. I focused on John Locke as Hercules, but I think the essence of what I am saying — that the format and sequence of structural elements of the story has already determined some facets of the outcome — could be applied to a number of different problems on the island.
Here is the theory:
Hercules
Lindelof, Cuse, and the other Lost writers frequently weave literary types and mythology into their exposition of the grand forces at play on the island. I believe these techniques serve several storytelling objectives. I believe that the most important of these goals must be the establishment of a new mythos capable of sustaining interest over six long years, and that we can exploit the writers’ need to achieve this goal toward our own end of understanding the greater meaning of characters and events on film. The story is too rich to write a brief myth-based interpretation of the entire history of the island, but I would like to attempt to shed possibly new light on one small piece of the great myth. I believe over the last three years we’ve acquired enough information to posit that one of the characters fits a mythological archetype frequently invoked in the stories, and we can use this archetype to get some feel for the direction the story is likely to be heading. In a nutshell, John Locke seems to be a well-drawn version of one of the great figures of Greek mythology: Heracles, or as he is more often referred to in English, Hercules. John Locke is Hercules. By understanding the significance of this, we will come to understand how at least some future events on the island will unfold.
Allusion
Greek myth is woven into the story at many levels. Several of the Dharma stations bear names lifted directly from Greek myth: Hydra, Swan, Arrow, and Pearl, for instance. I do not recall that Hercules has been referenced directly, but one very important character must be taken as an allusion to Hercules: Cerberus. I believe it is possible, on the basis of direct references alone, to posit the need for a Hercules figure on the island. John Locke is the character who most obviously fits the archetype of Hercules. By understanding Hercules, then, we will come to understand Locke, and therefore begin to see the path he must inevitably follow.
Apollo candy bars and the involvement of the hydra, swans, and the pearl in Greek myths about the sun god, Apollo, have been taken in several Lost theories to be nothing more than direct references to Apollo. While I consider this to be possible, I believe that the invocation of the Apollo stories serves as allusion to greater myths — those involving the greatest of the Greek heroes, Hercules. The first mystery of Lost, and I would guess one of the greatest mysteries of the island, is the identity and purpose and eventual fate of "smokey," the "Smoke Monster," who is formally referred to on the hatch map as Cerberus. I am not aware of any mention of Cerberus in any of the myths concerning Apollo. But Cerberus is key to the myth stories of Hercules.
Cerberus
An oracle told Hercules that he had to fulfill ten labours to be assigned by King Eurystheus of Tiryns. Hercules, a man of faith, accepted his fate and sought out King Eurystheus to begin his labours. Over a period of eight years, Hercules did the King’s bidding and performed all ten labours, including the slaying of a great boar and the killing of the hydra. But the King would not let him go. He insisted that one of the labours didn’t count, and he assigned Hercules to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, goddesses and daughters of Atlas, the god who held the world on his shoulders. It was a task no mortal man should have been able to perform, this stealing of divine possessions. But Hercules was the strongest and bravest of all mortal men; he eventually prevailed against all expectations, and presented Eurystheus with the apples. Eurystheus again refused to let Hercules go, and assigned him one final, unearthly task: "Find the Guardian of Hades, Cerberus. Capture him with your bare hands, and bring him to me." It was an impossible task, and Eurystheus knew it. The King realized he had finally defeated Hercules.
Cerberus was the three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades, the Greek name for the underworld, the place inhabited by dead souls. The monster’s tail was a horrible dragon, its back covered with the heads of snakes. The bite of any one of the snakes would kill a man. This was a ferocious beast, more dangerous than any animal inhabiting the human world, and deadlier than any weapon known to humanity. There could be no movement upward from Hades, and Cerberus was the final guarantor of that fact. The powers of Olympus knew of no other beast more capable of ensuring the separation of the world of the living from the world of the dead.
Of course, the story of Hercules does not end here. Hercules, unarmed, went to the gates of Hades. He wrapped his thick arms around the beast’s neck and wouldn’t let go. Though the dragon-tail of Cerberus bit him, he was undeterred. By sheer physical strength and indefatigable will, he wrestled the beast to the ground, and dragged the monster up from the underworld, up to Tiryns, and into King Eurystheus’ palace. Hercules, having achieved the impossible, had proven himself as no mortal ever had, or ever would. Eurystheus realized there were no labours greater than this, and finally released Hercules from his service.
Resolution of Mystery
The great mysteries of the island will eventually be revealed and resolved. One of the deepest mysteries is Cerberus. Cerberus is the Great Beast Not of This World that is eventually vanquished by mortal man. This great mystery must be resolved, and the resolution will inevitably require the conquest of this beast. Hercules, John Locke, will defeat the monster.
The Smoke Monster is not akin to the beast of Greek myth in name alone. The Monster has killed many, including Mr. Eko. It has manifested as a being with three heads (to Kate and Juliet, at the sonic fence). It tried to drag Locke into a hole or "vent"– the island’s underworld.
Cerberus stands between two worlds on the island, just as it did in Greek myth. Cerberus understood that Mr. Eko had not repented of treachery against his own brother. The only possible response from this guardian of the Gates of Hades was swift and sure: Smokey killed Mr. Eko.
Smokey was the first mystery to everyone except Locke (the first mystery for him was his sudden ability to walk). It was the frightening force that flattened great swaths of trees on that very first night after the crash. More than any other mystery since then, Cerberus has taken center stage in the story of the island. From the point of view of the writers, Cerberus will have to be dealt with in a very direct, forceful manner. Cerberus will not be tamed, turned into a docile lapdog. Most likely, Cerberus will not be revealed until the very end, when there is a showdown between it and its eventual conqueror. The only way, from a structural point of view, that it could achieve resolution before the end of the story is to become an instrument in service of a greater mystery. Certainly the Great Purpose of the island is the deepest mystery, and Cerberus may become the instrument that finally allows our heroes to reveal its meaning. In this way, the showdown between Hercules and Cerberus may not be the final revelation of the story, but I do maintain, because of the very clear central importance of the Smoke Monster, that the defeat of Cerberus will almost certainly be the final event that leads to the deconvolution of the essential mysteries of the island.
Locke and Jacob
The story of Hercules does not end with the defeat of Cerberus. Hercules went on to win an archery contest and a prince’s promise of a lovely maiden’s hand in marriage. But when the prince reneged on his promise, Hercules murdered the prince’s brother. When a temple priestess refused Hercules an oracle as a way of atoning for the murder, Hercules tore apart the temple. That made Apollo angry, and he fought Hercules. The battle went on without resolution, and finally ended only because Zeus (king of all the gods) intervened and forced them to stop. In the end, the enemies of Hercules tricked him, soaking his tunic in venom from the hydra Hercules had killed. When Hercules donned the garment, the venom burned into his skin, tormenting him. When he could stand the awful pain no longer, he built a funeral pyre and had his friends set it ablaze. But even this is not the final chapter. Zeus, seeing the great nobility of Hercules’ life and the manner in which he chose to die, gave Hercules immortal life.
Jacob has an existence beyond the normal realm of mortal life. Whether Jacob is immortal is not essential, I believe. I think the essential facet of this character’s being, at least in terms of his relationship to Hercules, is that Jacob somehow transcends ordinary human life. If Locke hews closely to the archetype of Hercules, as he appears to be doing so far in the story, I believe Locke will eventually have to share somehow in this transcendence of ordinary human life. We perhaps begin to see the physical/biological dimension of this already in Locke’s life: miraculous healing of his back at the crash site, rapid healing of his legs after Boone’s "sacrifice required by the island," essentially miraculous healing after being shot by Ben, and so on. At some point in the development of his relationship to Jacob, and probably as a result of labours aimed at self-atonement and helping Jacob/the island, this modeling after Hercules will require Locke’s transformation into something well anchored in humanity but nevertheless reaching and attaining some aspect of the divine. Whatever it is of Jacob’s essence that is beyond the reach of ordinary humanity will become available, at least in part, to Locke.
Locke, the English philosopher, unites man and nature by means of empirical understanding. As the creators of Lost point out, the character names are not chosen accidentally. John Locke, the Great White Hunter, slayer of boar, discoverer of hatches, clearly is the character intended somehow to bring together the Survivors and the Others into some closer communion with the island. He will achieve this by understanding Jacob, defeating Cerberus, and in the end, unveiling the final mystery that has evaded everyone else: the Final Truth of the island. Hercules, the most courageous of men, is the key to Lost.
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It’s clear to me that the writers defintitely are using parallels with mythology and the like. For instance, the angel Abaddon is also the guardian of the underworld, the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek Cerberus. The question is: are these parallels merely superficial or symbollic? Or do they really have something to do with the real mystery of the island and what is going on there? Are they clues to the “answers”?
For instance, the Matrix movies relied heavily and intentionally upon the ancient gnostic myth. If you know that myth, then you can see how its meaning was reflected directly in what was going on in the story. That’s the question: how closely is the story of Lost related to the mythological allusions.
Comment by BobW — April 14, 2008 @ 7:34 am
Hi BobW,
Thanks for the response! I think the degree to which allusion in the story is related to events on the island is one important aspect of the writers’ art in Lost. But I think a more important element is the degree to which the events satisfy the constraints of the story arc. What I argue is that the writers will try to achieve this necessary goal–bringing the story to satisfactory conclusion–by making the completed story arc part of a grand set of allusions and archetypes that form a new mythos. The Hercules/Locke myth, I think will have to form the part of the story that has so far been stamped out by Locke and Smokey/Hercules and Cerberus. In this way, the writers will have achieved something memorable and more enduring than the typical television drama, and I believe this has to be their aim in a single story that requires six years to tell.
Pearson Moore
Comment by Pearson Moore — April 14, 2008 @ 7:43 am
Overall I really like the effort and insight you put into this piece - bravo!
I do have some questions though, but I will say that loosely I think you’re onto something. I do think Locke is that bridge b/w the survivors naivete of what’s going on and the savoir faire of the Ben/Richard crew. I do also agree that he seems to get ’smokey’ and he will be the one to reconcile that for us.
First I will say I am only superficially aware of Greek myths, I am no expert so please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here.
I’m wondering what you think of this: Hercules was heroic (hence the term, hero) and consistently performed mighty tasks and never failed. He went on from one superhuman activity to another and as you say he did not fail at one of his tasks.
Locke on the other hand makes errors in judgment frequently. Now some may say that he deep down knows what he’s doing (destroying the flame, we know he lied about not knowing about the C4) and that they are not errors, but he a) didn’t stop Boone from dying to further his own aims and lied about it to Jack when they may have had a chance to save him, b) totally misread the button and led to the anomalous event (which he may have subconsciously wanted to do but he seemed to be sorry and wrong about it during the time), c) wimped out killing his dad and outsourced it to Sawyer, d) made a mistake at home allowing the undercover cop to come in and raid the weed compound he lived at betraying his ‘friends’ and e) consistently is manipulated by Ben and shows his weak frustration often by throwing things like a child. I know there are others but can’t think of them right now.
Therefore how do you square Hercules as a superhuman dynamo that consistently aces his tasks with one that appears to oscillate b/w herculean stud and naive doof? Does Locke’s inconsistent behavior challenge you to rethink this at all?
Comment by Dav — April 14, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Dav,
Great comments and questions!
I think you are on point here, and the reservations you bring up have to be considered. In the end, I think anyone giving due consideration to the theory would have to concede that the behaviours you cite as deviations from “heroism” may suffice at some point to prove this theory wrong or at least incomplete. But I argue, based on what I understand to be the necessity of certain structural elements of the story, that this remains unlikely.
I think it’s possible that Locke may end up deviating from the Herculean ideal to such an extent that he is no longer able to perform the great labour of taming Cerberus. But from the point of view of good storytelling, I think this is unlikely. The larger mysteries of the island will have to be resolved. The writers can’t just come out and say Locke sees a bright light while everyone else sees a dark, black smoke monster because Locke has resolved his issues while others have not. It will have to be something grand in storytelling scale, something mythic, in order to justify the 120+ hours of time required to make the revelation.
There are many myths and bundles of allusion competing with the Hercules/Cerberus myth. We have rich allusion to Shakespeare (e.g., The Tempest), other Greek myths (e.g., Apollo), and of course we have recurring elements like the 18th century philosophers club, of which John Locke is an important member. Since we are not following a linear path to the final resolution, but we are proceeding along multiple mythic pathways, we will not see complete parallels to the original myths. For instance, I would never expect to see Locke complete 12 labours.
Also, we have the recurring motif of redemption. Apparently just about everyone on the island is going to have to go through some inner crisis, and Locke appears to share this requirement with everyone else. In this light, he could never rise above his frail humanity (at least not until the end of his character arc, and not until he defeats Smokey), and he will have to make mistakes. I would guess the severity of the mistake will be commensurate with the later redemption. Jack almost killed himself, so he’s way up there in importance. Locke destroyed the hatch, forced Desmond to go back and forth thru time, so he’s way up there, too, in terms of the severity of his misjudgment, and therefore will have tremendous importance at the end of the story.
Thanks again for the great comments and questions!
Pearson Moore
Comment by Pearson Moore — April 14, 2008 @ 11:42 am
pearson, I am very, very intrigued with your hypothosis. I think Lost is the best television show in ages… and I am a student of greek myths and in particular the Heracles myth. in regards to the comments by Dav, that Locke does not seem very heroic a lot of the time, I would add that Heracles made tremendous errors of judgment in the myths. was he strong and brave - yes! But always right? nope. he killed his own family in a fit of madness. that was the crime he had committed that forced him to work for Eurystheus in the first place. he had a strained relationship with his dad -Zeus and a horrible relationship with his step-mother, Hera. He got drunk at the wrong time and embarrassed a good friend at a time the friend was grieving the death of his wife. many more episodes in the life of Heracles show that he was fallible, just like Locke. I think you are probably very right in your prediction that Locke will be the one to have a showdown with Smokey (Cerberus). But I don’t think we should pass over the significance of the Hydra station. in most accounts, the slaying of the Hydra was the second labor, and one of only two labors where he had to have help. and as you point out, and something that is not often even acknowledged in most retellings, it was the poisonous blood of the hydra, that Heracles himself had dipped his arrows into, that eventually lead to Heracles painful, yet noble death. his wife mistrusted him, thought he was being unfaithful, and gave him a robe soaked in the blood…(its a longer story that than, but that is the gist of it). Heracles dies, ironically, from a gift someone he loves gave him, someone who wrongfully misunderstood him, and a gift that he himself had unknowingly poisoned. its a tragic story, but that is the story of Locke… the tragic hero. misunderstood, sometimes his own worst enemy, someone with incredible power from outside of himself. Heracles, also for a time, carried the weight of the world on his shoulders while Atlas was out gathering apples. Locke has felt that he carries, not only the weight of the world of survivors on his shoulders (a fate he shares with Jack) but also carried the weight of the survival of the island. anyway, very thoughtful analysis and it has sparked many ideas in my own mind. thanks for the posting. would love to hear more of your thoughts. david
Comment by david burt — April 14, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Hi David,
Thanks for your expert comments!
I’ve read the myths you refer to, but I had not thought of them in the way you describe. Your interpretation I think brings even more relevance to the theory, and I was excited to read your thoughts on this. In particular, I think your emphasis on the Hydra Station connections with Locke are interesting. The polar bears were prominent residents of the Hydra, and with Locke’s rescue of Mr. Eko from the polar bear’s lair, I wonder if we might not see an episode next year concerning Hydra and Locke. Perhaps something like this will lead to the final showdown between Locke and Smokey?
I’m working on a somewhat broader theory, for release after the Season Four finale. See you then!
Pearson Moore
Comment by Pearson Moore — April 14, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
hey,
Ive been working on this kind of thing for a while now, like months. if you want to see the brief explination http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=94679
also, concerning hades, the new Logo for the Temple seems to allude to a tunnel or hole below the earth. There are many other things, but see my post for the beginners version first
Needless to say, its not a time machine, i gaurentee it.
Its got Science and myth in it. I am regularly on the DarkUFO chat if there are any other questions, or i would love your comments on the board as well. Feedback ROCKS!
Comment by Benry — May 6, 2008 @ 5:03 pm