Diane Janssen

Season: 1-4, Episodes: 5, Faction: N/A

Overview

Diane Janssen (formerly Diane Austen) is the mother of Kate Austen.

Fertility (Vegetation)

Fertility (Earth)

Fertility (Water)

Sun (Fire)

Cow (Bull)

2×09 – What Kate Did

   

Diane became pregnant with Kate by a man named Wayne (possibly while she was still married to Sam Austen). Kate grew up believing that Sam was her biological father. Eventually, Diane returned to Wayne, despite the physical abuse he inflicted upon her. Wayne, who was an alcoholic, made repeated advances toward Kate, who was still unaware of the “true” identity of her father.

While making a photo album of all of Sam’s war pictures, a date caught Kate’s eye. A photo showed Sam at war, dated nine months before Kate was born. Kate then understood the truth – Wayne was her real father, as there was no way Sam had contact with Diane around the time of Kate’s conception.

   

Disgusted at how he was ruining her mother’s life, Kate blew up Wayne’s house while he was still inside. Before fleeing, Kate visits her mother at the diner where she works (ordering a beer) and consults Diane about what she had done. Diane, fueled by the fact that her own daughter had just killed the man she loved, gave Kate up to the police. (“What Kate Did”)

2×13 – The Long Con

   

Diane served beer to Sawyer, and his associate, Gordy, as they were meeting over the long con involving Cassidy Phillips. (“The Long Con”)

3×15 – Left Behind

   

Kate needed to know why Diane had turned her in. With Cassidy’s help, Kate confronted her mother. Diane told her, “you can’t help who you love, Katherine, and for good or bad I loved him.” When Kate tried to defend herself, Diane retorted that Kate killed Wayne for herself, not for Diane. She then told Kate that she would not turn her in, but if Kate came back, Diane would yell for help. A devastated Kate left. Kate told Cassidy she could not forgive her mother. (“Left Behind”)

1×22 – Born to Run

   

Diane eventually developed cancer. Through a chain of events, Kate was able to visit her mother, who was believed to be dying, in the hospital. Diane, who was apparently unaware of the setup, was taken by surprise when her daughter showed up and began to scream for help, just as she had warned she would. A doctor rushed in to see what was going on, but Kate ran for the door just in time. (“Born to Run”)

After the rescue of the Oceanic 6

4×04 – Eggtown

   

Diane’s doctors told her that she only had six months to live, but she managed to survive for another 4 years, long enough to see Kate return from the island and stand trial for Wayne’s murder. Diane was meant to be the prosecution’s chief witness, but the experience of first believing Kate was dead and then being told after Kate’s return that she had a grandchild caused Diane to have second thoughts. Diane, who had become bound to a wheelchair and an oxygen tank by her illness, asked Kate to let her see Aaron in exchange for a promise not to testify. Kate refused, but Diane still ended up not taking the stand. According to Melissa Dunbrook, this was due to medical reasons. (“Eggtown”)

Images Source | Images Source | Source 

Related Character Images

   

   

Decoded Family Members

Wayne Janssen (Husband)

Sam Austen (Ex-Husband)

Kate Austen (Daughter)

Kevin Callis (Former Son-in-law)

Aaron Austen (Foster Grandson)

Decoded Season 1 Characters

Tom Brennan

James Sawyer

Jack Shephard

John Locke

Decoded Season 2 Characters

Cassidy Phillips

Gordy

Ben Linus

Decoded Season 3 Characters

Juliet Burke

Mikhail Bakunin

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

2x09 "What Kate Did" 2x13 "The Long Con" 3x15 "Left Behind"

4x04 "Eggtown"

(Hesis) Hesat is depicted as a cow, intended as a wild cow if her name means, as has been suggested, ‘the wild one’. Her name is also closely related to an Egyptian word for milk. In utterance 485A of the Pyramid Texts, the king addresses Re, saying “I have come to you, O Re, a calf of gold born of the sky, a fatted calf of gold which Hesat created.” In spell 175 of the Coffin Texts the deceased says “I am the white bull whom Hesat suckled,” (similarly in spell 343, 344). Hesat features particularly in connection with the ‘Field of Offerings’ in the netherworld. In a spell from the Coffin Texts for becoming Hetep, ‘Lord of the Field of Offerings [hetep]‘ (467), the deceased says, “I close my eye, yet I shine on the day of Hesat; I have slept by night, I have restored the milk to its proper level [i.e. replenished it], and I am in my town.” In a similar spell (468, similar to BD spell 110) Hesat is called ‘Lady of the Winds’. In spell 826, Hesat is the provider, not only of milk, but of beer in the other world (unless the phrase “beer of Hesat” in this spell is simply a metaphor for milk). A “son of Hesat” is mentioned in utterance 696 of the Pyramid Texts, which is unfortunately fragmentary and does not allow us to identify who this son might be. In spell 605 of the Coffin Texts, a spell to create a bed in the other world, the operator says, “I am a son of Hesat.” In general, to be a son of Hesat is to be well provided for, the cow being the preeminent embodiment of maternal solicitude in Egyptian symbolism. The sons of Hesat in a somewhat more literal sense were the sacred Mnevis bulls, and Hesat was sometimes regarded as the mother of the Apis bulls as well. A living sacred cow of Hesat and Isis is attested, and the bond between these two paradigmatically maternal Goddesses is strengthened by the tendency to occasionally write Hesat’s name in a manner so as to incorporate the hieroglyph for Isis. Anubis was sometimes regarded as the son of Hesat. One reason for this may be on account of the connection between Hesat and the imy-wt or nebris. The nebris, an animal hide – possibly bovine – totem, is associated with Anubis and may also have been the symbolic antecedent for the ‘white crown’ of Upper Egypt, which may have been fashioned out of leather. The nebris is said, unsurprisingly, to be “born of Hesat” in utterance 688 of the Pyramid Texts, where this leather is a component of the ladder upon which the deceased king is to climb to the sky. A myth about the origins of the nebris, however, from the Jumilhac Papyrus, although enigmatic, is more informative. Here the origin of the nebris is traced back to the regeneration performed by Hesat upon Nemty, who has been skinned alive. Hesat restores his flesh with an unguent made of her milk, an act which is described as a rebirth, it having been explained earlier in the text that flesh and skin come from the mother’s milk, while bones come from the father’s semen. Hesat thus becomes a new mother to Nemty. While the text is enigmatic about the exact relationship of this story to the nebris, one can infer that the nebris is a symbol of regeneration, perhaps originating in ceremonies on behalf of slaughtered cattle, and is under the care of Anubis because he uses it to reconstitute Osiris. The domesticated dog’s employment in herding cattle may also have played a role in the association between Anubis and Hesat, Anubis being sometimes called ‘the good oxherd’.

Source

Further Info

Other Names: Hesat

Patron of: food and drink.

Appearance: a cow carrying a tray of food on her horns with drink flowing from her udders.

Description: Heset was an ancient fertility goddess, though her cult was supplanted by the cult of Hathor, a very similar goddess. In later times she was changed to be a goddess of plenty or of food and drink. The ancient Egyptians referred to beer as the “milk of Heset.”

Source

Wiki Info

In Egyptian mythology, Hesat (also spelt Hesahet, and Hesaret) was the manifestation of Hathor, the divine sky-cow, in earthly form. Like Hathor, she was seen as the wife of Ra.

Since she was the more earthly cow-goddess, Milk was said to be the beer of Hesat, a rather meaningless phrase as Hesat means milk anyway. As a dairy cow, Hesat was seen as the wet-nurse of the other gods, the one who creates all nourishment. Thus she was pictured as a divine white cow, carrying a tray of food on her horns, with milk flowing from her udders.

In this earthly form, she was, dualistically, said to be the mother of Anubis, the god of the dead, since, it is she, as nourisher, that brings life, and Anubis, as death, that takes it. Since Ra’s earthly manifestation was the Mnevis bull, the three of Anubis as son, the Mnevis as father, and Hesat as mother, were identified as a family triad, and worshipped as such.

Source 

Mythological Family Members & Associated Deities

RA (Consort)	ANUBIS (Son)	MNEVIS	APIS	HATHOR	OSIRIS	ISIS
NEMTY