Magnus Hanso

Season: 2 & 6, Episodes: 2, Faction: DHARMA Initiative

Overview

Magnus Hanso was a 19th-century sea captain of the Black Rock. He died when the ship was thrown on the Island by a huge tidal wave.

Water (Fertility)

Leadership

Underworld

On the Island

Apart from his name being mentioned by others, Magnus Hanso himself has never been shown in Lost, alive or dead.

2×17 – Lockdown

   

The blast door map suggests Magnus Hanso was at some point buried on or near the site of the Black Rock wreckage, and this fact was known by some members of the DHARMA Initiative. (“Lockdown”) In the bottom right part of the map, it is written: “Known final resting place of Magnus Hanso / Black Rock”.

6×09 – Ab Aeterno

   

In 1867, Hanso sent one of his officers, Jonas Whitfield, to Tenerife to find a slave for his ship, The Black Rock. Whitfield picked Richard Alpert, as he knew how to speak English, and then paid Father Suarez a sum of money for him. Some time later, the ship was caught in a terrible storm during the night and carried on a giant tidal wave onto the island, partially destroying the Statue of Taweret in the process, before landing in the middle of the jungle.

   

The next day, “Captain Hanso” was reported dead by the surviving officers on deck. Moments later, the slaves still alive were killed by Whitfield, with the exception of Richard, before the smoke monster appeared and massacred him and the remaining officers. (“Ab Aeterno”)

On Lost Experience

Information about Magnus comes almost entirely from a book excerpt revealed by Rachel Blake in her second Copenhagen blog entry:

“With Magnus Hanso’s sale of the New World Sea Traders, an era in British shipping drew to a close. Whether history will judge him harshly for his continued role in the slave trade post-abolition remains to be seen. However, with Hanso’s unquestionable dedication to his fleet, it is certain that this ship’s captain turned entrepreneur left a substantial mark on the international shipping trade. For, although he could have rested on his laurels and steered the company from the quiet and comfort of his London manor, Hanso’s passion for the sea inspired him to continue as captain of several voyages each year.

It is an interesting footnote, and, perhaps, a testament to Hanso’s lasting influence that those slips from which the New World Sea Traders operated at Portsmouth, numbering 18 through 27, continued to be known during the following era of the East Ocean Trade Group as the “New World Docks,” a point… (excerpt ends)”

After selling the New World Sea Traders company to the East Ocean Trade Group, the company would later be purchased in the 1950s by the Hanso Group, renaming it to the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants.

Image & Source

Associated LOST Themes & DHARMA Stations

      

Decoded Family Members

Alvar Hanso (Great Grandson)

Rachel Blake (Great Great Granddaughter)

Decoded Season 1 & 3 Characters

Danielle Rousseau

John Locke

Richard Alpert

Decoded Season 5 Characters

Nadine

Montand

Stuart Radzinsky

Man In Black

Decoded Season 6 Characters

Jonas Whitfield

Ignacio

Isabella

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

2x17 "Lockdown" 6x09 "Ab Aeterno"

The Dark Territory

The Dark Territory was an undefined region on the Island. It was notable for being the home of the Black Rock, Rousseau’s camp, and where the Monster was highly active. Its location was several hours somewhere northeast of the survivors’ camp.

Territory’s name

This region was apparently named by Danielle Rousseau, who called it the “Territoire Foncé”. On her map she labeled it, “L’ENDROIT LE PLUS DANGEREUX” (Translated: “The most dangerous place”). (“Whatever the Case May Be”).

The Black Rock & The Monster

   

Danielle Rousseau took the survivors into the Dark Territory to retrieve sticks of dynamite from the Black Rock, a ship that was located unusually deep in the Island’s jungle. (“Exodus, Part 1”)

The Monster appeared to be more active in this region; it attacked the survivors during their mission to retrieve dynamite from the Black Rock, nearly pulling Locke underground. (“Exodus, Part 2”)

The blast door map contained the phrase, “Primary nexus of Cerberus related activity”, in close proximity to the Black Rock. (“Lockdown”) Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof confirmed that “Cerberus” was an alias for the the Monster at Comic Con 2007’s Lost panel.

Before the crash

The Dark Territory was where Danielle Rousseau’s science expedition first encountered the Others. Also according to Rousseau, this was where her teammates became infected with the Sickness. One member of Rousseau’s team, Montand, lost his arm in the Dark Territory after it was ripped off by the Smoke Monster. The Temple was located inside of the Dark Territory. (“This Place Is Death”).

After the crash

Season Five

   

The science expedition was heading towards the radio tower, led by Jin, when Nadine went missing. The group searched for her in the Dark Territory, and encountered the Monster. The Monster dragged Montand to a temple, and attempted to pull him inside of a cerberus vent. The science crew tried to pull him back, but the Monster ripped off one of his arms, succeeding in dragging Montand into the vent. (“This Place Is Death”)

Image Source  | Images Source | Source

Wiki Info

In some versions of Greek mythology, Ophion (“serpent”), also called Ophioneus ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea.

Sources

Pherecydes of Syros’s Heptamychia is the first attested mention of Ophion.

The story was apparently popular in Orphic poetry, of which only fragments survive.

Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica (1.495f) summarizes a song of Orpheus:

He sang how the earth, the heaven and the sea, once mingled together in one form, after deadly strife were separated each from other; and how the stars and the moon and the paths of the sun ever keep their fixed place in the sky; and how the mountains rose, and how the resounding rivers with their nymphs came into being and all creeping things. And he sang how first of all Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, held the sway of snowy Olympus, and how through strength of arm one yielded his prerogative to Cronos and the other to Rhea, and how they fell into the waves of Oceanus; but the other two meanwhile ruled over the blessed Titan-gods, while Zeus, still a child and with the thoughts of a child, dwelt in the Dictaean cave; and the earthborn Cyclopes had not yet armed him with the bolt, with thunder and lightning; for these things give renown to Zeus.

Lycophron (1191) relates that Zeus’ mother, that is Rhea, is skilled in wrestling, having cast the former queen Eurynome into Tartarus.

Nonnus in his Dionysiaca has Hera say (8.158f):

I will go to the uttermost bounds of Oceanus and share the hearth of primeval Tethys; thence I will pass to the house of Harmonia and abide with Ophion.

Harmonia here is probably an error in the text for Eurynome. Ophion is mentioned again by Nonnus (12.43):

Beside the oracular wall she saw the first tablet, old as the infinite past, containing all the things in one: upon it was all that Ophion lord paramount had done, all that ancient Cronus accomplished.

We also have fragments of the writings of the early philosopher Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BCE) who devised a myth or legend in which powers known as Zas and Chronos ‘Time’ and Chthonie ‘Of the Earth’ existed from the beginning and in which Chronos creates the universe. Some fragments of this work mention a birth of Ophioneus and a battle of the gods between Cronus (not Chronos) on one side and Ophioneus and his children on the other in which an agreement is made that whoever pushes the other side into Ogenos will lose and the winner will hold heaven.

Eusebius of Caesarea in his Praeparatio Evangelica (1.10) cites Philo of Byblos as declaring that Pherecydes took Ophion and the Ophionidae from the Phoenicians.

Interpretations

Robert Graves in his book The Greek Myths imaginatively reconstructs a Pelasgian creation myth involving Ophion as a serpent created by a supreme goddess called Eurynome dancing on the waves. She is fertilized by the serpent and in the form of a dove lays an egg on the waters about which Ophion entwines until it hatches and the world issues forth. Then Ophion and Eurynome dwell on Mt. Olympus until Ophion’s boasting leads Eurynome to banish him to the darkness below the earth.

Image & Source 

Mythological Family Members & Associated Deities

EURYNOME (Consort)

CRONUS

RHEA

OCEANUS

TETHYS

ZEUS

CHRONOS