Ἰακώβ

At the beginning of The Incident, we see Jacob working on a tapestry. He headlined his work with ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ, (may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires) quoted from Homers Odissey. The work showed the arrival of Egytian seafarers on the Island. What is Jacobs greco-egyptian influence? Homer lived around 850 BC. The biblical Jacob was the ancestor of the 12 tribes of Israel. He fathered 12 children, with his wives, Leah and Rachel, and their two maids. While the family was hit by a severe famine, Jacob moved them to Egypt, and settled at a place called Goshen. The Istraelites lived there till the Exodus, which happened during the time of Ramesses II, also known as Ozymandias. This would place the Exodus roughly around the year 1242 BC.

Timejump to 300 BC… woosh.

Alexander the Great became ruler of Egypt in 323 BC. He founded Alexandria, but died soon afterwards, still busy with his enormous campaign to conquer the world. But he left his close friend, the macedon general Ptolemy Soter as satrap of Egypt. After some warring with the Diadochi and Syria, and saving Rhodes, he called himself Pharaoh in 304. He founded, among other things, the famous library of Alexandria, and started the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Egypt was ruled by a caste of greeks now. Alexandria was the capital of an hellenistic empire that reached from Syria to Nubia. The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, till it ended with sweet Cleopatra. Kings called themselves Ptolemy, queens were always named Cleopatra and Berenice. In the beginning the Ptolemys allowed the Egyptians to follow their gods, and they dressed like the Pharaohs of the older dynasties themselves. But more and more Greeks settled in Egypt, and had a string cultural influence. Egypt was the ruled by a Greek minority, under Greek law, education and culture. But, as always, empires crumble, and this happened with the Greek rulers of Egypt, too. Ptolemy IV was weak and corrupt, and killed his mother. From there it went southwards. Meanwhile the Roman empire was on the rise in Italy. The more or less useless Ptolemys became puppets of Rome, because the senate feared to give rich Egypt as a province to a proconsul. It was easier to control Alexandria from the outside, than to empower a Roman King (Rome was still a pretty democratic republic by then).

This all changed by smart Cleopatra VII getting involved with Julius Caesar, and after his death with Marc Anthony. After Octavians (who later became Augustus and ended the Roman republic for good) victory over Anthony, Cleopatra killed herself and ended the greek reign over Egypt, which finally became a Roman province.

Maybe Jacob arrived with the Egyptian sailors on the Island, maybe they were the first group of candidates for the game. If he is the Jacob depicted in the bible he is as ageless as he made Richard Alpert, later. But his cultural background is clearly influenced by the greek rule of Egypt, between 300 and 30 BC. Why did his cultural taste not change during the ages, so that he still sticks to his greco-egyptian ways in the 1800s, at the arrival of the Black Rock. He is capable of leaving the Island, so he should be able to pick up the pop-culture of the 19th century. Maybe Jacob and Esau time-jump across the ages during their game, after all this is just progress.