Ok, so we know from the opening scene that Jacob and "the man in black" (who some of us refer to as Esau) are at odds with one another. They are talking about the coming of the ship, how they found the island, proving each other wrong, mankind and progress, "the man in black" wanting to kill Jacob, the loophole, etc.
I've been concentrating so hard on the Egyptian tie-ins that the Greek Mythology tie-ins never came up - until now. We have seen the tapestry that Jacob was weaving, some have noted Greek and Egyptian writing. Plus, there is the whole Latin speaking deal...interesting.
It seems like the producers, in an attempt to keep people digging and looking, have almost made us focus on the Egyptian symbols and tie-ins. We've seen glyphs, writing, statues, etc from the beginning. We've heard Smokey "the black smoke monster" referred to as "Cerberus" (in the Lost Experience ARG). But what about Greek Mythology?
So I started doing some digging and cracking all those old Greek Mythology books. It turns out (and remember the candy bar kiddies - Apollo) that there is a story of two brothers - Prometheus and Epimetheus. It's kind of ineteresting in that Epimetheus (meaning literally hind-thought, but in the manner of a fool looking behind, while running forward) and Prometheus (foresight, literally fore-thought), were a pair of Titans who "acted as representatives of mankind". They were the inseparable sons of Iapetus (sounds a lot like Lupidas), who in other contexts was the father of Atlas. While Prometheus is characterized as ingenious and clever, Epimetheus is depicted as foolish.
These twin Titans were entrusted with distributing the traits among the newly-created animals; Epimetheus was responsible for giving a positive trait to every animal, but when it was time to give man a positive trait, lacking foresight he found that there was nothing left. His brother Prometheus then bestowed upon man the image and stature of the gods.
The story goes on that Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and was punished by Zeus. He was immortal so they chained him to a mountain and each day an eagle ate his liver. Of course he never died. As punishment to Man, Zeus created Pandora, the first woman, for Epimetheus, knowing that he would fall in love with her despite the warnings of his brother, the embodiment of "foresight", who told him never to accept a gift from the Olympian gods, with whom the primordial Titans, sprung from Mother Earth, were ever at odds.
I'm a firm believer that these two, whoever they are, have been around a long, long time going back and forth and are at odds with one another. I do not know who is "good" and who is "evil" since they both have a sort of calm demeanor about them - both kind of sure and cocky. They have most likely been here since before the Greek and Egyptian times. Almost like time travelers or aliens from another planet that crashed here many, many years ago.
Bottom line - they have powers we have only seen a glimpse of and the inhabitants of the island have kind of worshiped them for years. They have built statues, temples, etc and and been blessed with "gifts from the gods".
Then there is Smokey "the black smoke monster". I don't know exactly his role, whether he is the "man in black" or not but I suspect he is a guardian of some sort, almost like a pet to these two Titan like characters.
So - what do you think? Let's hear it! Let me know if you think I'm way off, on, hot, cold or just a helpless Lost addict like the rest of us on here!