Helen Norwood

Season: 2 & 6, Episodes: 4, Faction: N/A

Overview

Helen Norwood was Locke’s girlfriend for a period during his life before the plane crash, whom he had intended to marry. After Locke returned to the mainland in an attempt to bring back the Oceanic Six, Matthew Abaddon revealed that she had died of a brain aneurysm in 2006.

War	Death	Sun (Fire)	Sexuality	Fertility (Water)
Fertility (Vegetation)	Fertility (Earth)

Relationship with John Locke

2×03 – Orientation

Locke and Helen met at an anger-management support group they were both members of. After his outburst at the group about their whining, Helen approached Locke outside and told him that she appreciated his candor and shared his frustrations. She also flirted by telling him that she liked bald men – despite Locke not being bald she said that she was prepared to wait.

Their friendship moved to the bedroom fairly quickly and continued to blossom. During a meal at a restaurant, Helen gave Locke a key to her flat as a six-month anniversary present. She told him that she’d followed him and discovered that he was sneaking out at night to lurk outside his father’s house. The gift of the key was given on the condition that he stopped going there, to which Locke agreed.

Despite his promise to stop, Locke continued to spend long periods in his car waiting outside Cooper’s house. Helen followed him again and shunted her car into the back of his, stormed over to his window and snatched his keys from the ignition. She threw the keys over the security gates in the drive and implored him to give up on his obsession and take a “leap of faith” with her. Shortly after, Locke moved in with Helen. (“Orientation”)

2×17 – Lockdown

Locke eventually started making plans to propose to Helen over a romantic picnic. Unfortunately on the morning of the picnic Helen spotted Anthony Cooper’s obituary in the newspaper and that the funeral was scheduled for that day. Helen accompanied Locke to the funeral to support him.

Some days after the funeral, Cooper revealed to Locke that he was still alive and convinced him to participate in a criminal financial scheme in exchange for a share of the money. Locke’s suspicious behavior and a run in with some crooks searching for Cooper led Helen to follow him again. She turned up at the motel where Locke was meeting Cooper to hand over the money. She demanded of Cooper: “Are you him?”, slapped him and berated him for his treatment of Locke before leaving to go back to her car. Locke caught up with her in the parking lot outside and pleaded for forgiveness, went down on one knee and proposed. Helen shook her head and drove off. (“Lockdown”)

After the relationship

1×04 – Walkabout

Some time afterward, Locke began calling a phone sex operator he called Helen with whom he developed an obsession.

After having crashed on the Island, during a brief moment of confusion after being knocked over by a boar, Locke shouted out at Kate, calling her “Helen.” (“Walkabout”)

Post-Death

5×07 – The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

On April 8, 2006, Helen died of an apparent brain aneurysm. She was buried in Santa Monica, California.

After he returned from the Island, Locke used the assistance of his driver Matthew Abaddon to track down Helen’s whereabouts. To Locke’s dismay, he discovered that she had died and was buried in a Santa Monica cemetery. Locke flees from the cemetery after Abaddon is shot and killed by Ben. (“The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”)

6×04 – The Substitute

In the flash sideways, Helen and John were engaged and planned on getting married in October 2004. Being very sick of the wedding planning, caterers, bands, and picking out fabrics for chair backs (both a shade of green), she asked John if they can “do it shotgun style” in Las Vegas instead. She also mentioned taking her parents and John’s father with them, to which John replied that Helen deserved better and he knows everything will be done.

She was a woman of faith, believing that John meeting Jack Shephard (a spinal surgeon from the same flight) may be destiny and thinks that John should call him. The next day she overheard John on the phone with Dr. Jack Shephard’s office but he hangs up. She was glad John called and wanted to know when he was getting a consultation from Dr. Shephard.

John initially lied to Helen about skipping the conference in Australia, but eventually confessed that he was fired from the box company. When his case of lost knives was returned, he told Helen to open the case and explained what happened when he tried to go on a walkabout but was not allowed to go. John acknowledged that he knows, she wanted him to go to more consultations about his back and “needed him to get out of this chair”, but also shared with her that he doesn’t want her to wait for a miracle, because he believed no such thing existed. She replied there are miracles, but assured him that he was the only one she ever needed, and rippped up Jack’s business card. (“The Substitute”)

6×14 – The Candidate

After Locke’s hit and run accident, Helen rushed to her fiance’s bedside at St. Sebastian hospital. She thanked Dr. Shephard as the two embraced.

Helen visits with Anthony Cooper at the Palms Nursing Home (bringing him flowers) and meets with Jack, who discovers that Cooper is in a vegetative state after the flying accident with Locke. (“The Candidate”)

6×17 – The End

After Locke was cured of his paralysis and his memories of his former life were restored, he “moved on” without Helen. (“The End”)

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Related Character Images

Decoded Season 1 Characters

John Locke

Anthony Cooper

Jack Shephard

Helen

Warren

Decoded Season 2 Characters

Ben Linus

Francine

Moderator

Father Chuck

Jimmy Bane

Decoded Season 4 Characters

Matthew Abaddon

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

1x04 "Walkabout"

2x03 "Orientation"

2x17 "Lockdown"

6x04 "The Substitute"

6x14 "The Candidate"

(Anath) The Semitic Goddess Anat was introduced into Egypt as a result of immigration and royal patronage, first by the Hyksos and then by the Ramesside kings. Anat is a virgin huntress and warrior, and is depicted armed with a shield, a lance and a club or battle-axe. The warlike Ramesside kings seem to have sought her patronage for their Levantine military adventures, Rameses II even naming one of his daughters ‘Daughter of Anat’. Anat is depicted wearing a tall crown similar to the White Crown of Upper Egypt, but with plumes on the side (indistinguishable, in fact, from the atef crown worn by Osiris). Anat was regarded by Egyptians as fierce and androgynous. She was incorporated into the pantheon as a daughter of Re and a wife of Seth, who receives Anat, along with her fellow Levantine Goddess Astarte, as compensation for being denied the kingship in his dispute with Horus, according to the Conflict of Horus and Seth. This arrangement, in addition to acknowledging the tendency to identify Seth with the Levantine God Ba’al (although Ba’al was also adopted into Egyptian religion in a minor way), also allows Seth’s brute force, which is denied the position of governing principle, scope for expression in the aggressive expansion of Egyptian cultural influence in the region. In addition to her royal patronage in the Delta, Anat also had a following among commoners, perhaps due to the presence in the region of a significant immigrant population, but also reflecting the positive attributes of strength and combat prowess which Anat shares with Seth.

In a spell to exorcise demons, the operator affirms at one point that s/he has suckled from the breasts of Anat, “the big cow of Seth” (Borghouts no. 24), perhaps as a way of imbibing her fierceness. The mechanism of the spell involves drinking beer from “the big pitcher of Seth,” from which the operator draws “words” to use against the demons; it is possible therefore that Anat’s milk is here identified with beer. A fragmentary magic spell recounts a myth of Seth and Anat in which Seth has a sexual encounter with a beautiful female who proceeds to strike him with some kind of venom. Seth takes to his bed while Anat goes to Re to seek help for him, upon which Isis (somewhat surprisingly) volunteers to cure Seth, the spell unfortunately breaking off here. Anat is described in this spell as “the mighty Goddess, the bellicose maiden, who dresses like a man and adorns herself like a woman,” (Roccati, 156). Anat’s refusal of motherhood and of feminine dress complement Seth’s own sexuality, which is oriented toward both sexes and does not manifest in procreation. In a spell against crocodiles on the river from the Harris Magical Papyrus (spell F ll. 14-16=col. 3/5-10), five Gods are asked to seal what is in the river “like the mouth of the vulva of Anat and Astarte, the two great Goddesses who are pregnant without giving birth, is sealed.” It is explained that “They were closed by Horus. They were opened by Seth,” (Ritner 1984, 216). That is, Seth “opened” or impregnated them, but their vulvas were closed by Horus, that they might not give birth to, in the particular case, crocodiles, since Maga, the son of Seth, is depicted as a crocodile.

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Further Info

Much of the world’s religion today originated in the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea, including what is today Israel, together with its neighboring countries. In ancient times, these old states often imported and exported their gods as people migrated about, as these nations fought each other in wars, a fact that certainly had no small impact on our modern beliefs. Often, the attributes of the gods of one region were incorporated into the gods of another region. An example of this is the goddess, Anat, who was one of a number of deities imported into Egypt from the Syrian region.

The name Anat occurs in several forms in Ugaritic, Hebrew, Akkadian, and Egyptian, and as in such cases, the forms may vary widely. For example, in the Ugarit V Deity List it is spelled da-na-tu to be pronounced ‘Anatu’. Otherwise in Phoenician it is `nt and is pronounced ‘Anat’, ‘Anatu’, ‘Anath’ or ‘Anata’. The name is usually translated from Hebrew as ‘Anath’, but it could also be ‘Anat’. The Akkadian form is usually written as ‘Anta’ or ‘Antu’. The Egyptian forms are ‘Anant’, ‘Anit’, ‘Anti’, and ‘Antit’. We may also find variations of her name in reference books such as Anthat.

A major goddess of fertility, sexual love, hunting and war, the Goddess Anat was known among the Canaanites in prehistoric times, and was doubtless of considerable importance in that region. From the fertile agricultural area along the eastern Mediterranean coast, her cult spread throughout the Levant by the middle of the third millennium BC. Around the beginning of the Phoenician period (circa 1200 BC) Anat enjoyed a significant cult following. She was very prominent at Ugarit, a major religious center, and appears frequently in Ugaritic literary works incorporating mythical elements, in deity and offering lists, and in votive inscriptions.

Her cult became established in Egypt by the end of the Middle Kingdom, even before the Hyksos (Asiatics probably from Syria) invasion of Egypt, so her presence certainly attests to the slow immigration (or perhaps more often, enslavement as the spoils of war) of the Hyksos prior to their ultimate rule of Egypt. However, she attained prominence, particularly in the north (the Delta) during the Second Intermediate Period rule of the Hyksos, who appear to have promoted her cult in Egypt. She was represented at Memphis like all but the most local of deities, and sanctuaries were dedicated to her at the Hyksos capital of Tanis (Egypt) and Beth-Shan (Palistine).

Yet, while the rulers of Egypt’s New Kingdom took every step to denounce the Hyksos dynasty, her prestige reached its height in Egypt under Ramesses II who adopted Anat as his personal guardian in battle. Even Ramesses II’s dog, shown rushing onto a vanquished Libyan in a carving in Beit el Wali temple, has the name “Anat in vigor”. He also named his daughter (whom he later married) Bint-Anat, which means Daughter of Anat. He rebuilt Tanis and enlarged the sanctuary of Anat there. The Elephantine papyri dating from the late sixth century BC indicate that Anat was one of the two goddesses worshiped at the Temple of Yahu (Yahweh) by the Jews on the island of Elephantine in the Nile.

In Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine the worship of Anat persisted into Christian times (c. 200 AD), and perhaps much longer in popular religion. In Egypt traditional religion was practiced until the end of the Egyptian period (c. 400 AD). Anat may have been worshiped in one or more of the few Egyptian temples that remained open into the early 6th century AD. In contemporary times the worship of Anat has been revived in neo-pagan religion.

In Ugaritic texts she is the daughter of El, sister (though perhaps not literally) and consort of Baal. As Ba`al’s companion and help-mate, She is goddess of dew and the fertility that it brings. Apparently, through the union of Anat and Baal, an offspring was born in the form of a wild bull. She may be Rachmay, one of the two nursemaids of the Gracious Gods mentioned in the eponymous ritual text. She is also the twin sister of Myrrh. At Tanis in Egypt she was regarded as the daughter of Re. In the Egyptian myth of the Contest between Horus and Seth, Anat and Astarte appear as daughters of Re and consorts of (whom the Egyptians themselves identified with Baal).

From cuneiform text, Anat appears much the ruthless goddess. In her martial aspect she confines herself to slaying the enemies of Baal. She participates in the confrontation between Baal and Yam-Nahar. In a missing portion of the text she slays Yam and other enemies of Baal. During a victory celebration she departs to slaughter the warriors of two local towns. She joyfully wades in their blood, pours a peace offering and cleans up. She intercedes with El on Baal’s behalf to obtain the necessary permission for a palace to be built for Baal. Later, when Baal is killed by Mot (Death) in an archetypal battle, she buries him, hunts down Mot, and takes revenge by cutting, winnowing, grinding, and burning Mot like grain. In another myth she coveted the splendid bow belonging to a youth called Aqhat. When he refuses to part with this bow, Ana sends an eagle to slay him.

Although terrible as a war deity she was regarded as a just and benevolent goddess of beauty, sexuality, and of the fertility of crops, animals, and men. Her grace and beauty were considered among the acme of perfection. Anat is a complex and somewhat paradoxical goddess as can be seen from the epithets applied to her. Although she is regarded as the mother of gods, the most common epithet at Ugarit is batulat, Virgin or Maiden. She is sometimes called Wanton, in reference to her putative lust for sexual intercourse and the bloodshed of war. Other common epithets include: Adolescent Anat, Fairest daughter-sister of Baal, Lady, Strength of Life, Anat the Destroyer, and Lady of the Mountain.

Anat was considered by the Egyptians to be similar to Neith/Net, an ancient goddess from the Nile delta, with whom they identified Her. Neith is a skilled weaver and guardian of domestic life, as well as a goddess of war, whose symbols include crossed arrows on an animal skin or shield and a weaver’s shuttle. `Anat is interpreted as being depicted with a spindle as well as Her spear, and as the Canaanites/ Phoenicians were famed for their weaving, She may well have been a patroness of that skill, perhaps also of the famed dye, later known as Tyrian purple, which could also be a blood red color. In some descriptions, `Anat adorns Herself with something translated by some as murex, the snail from which the purple dye comes.

Several epithets are known from Egyptian inscriptions. From Aramaic inscriptions of the Hyksos period (c.1700 BC): “Anat-her”, Anat agrees or Agreeable Anat, and “Herit-Anta”, Terror of Anat. From inscriptions at Memphis dating to the 15th to the 12th centuries BC, we find her referred to as “Bin-Ptah”, Daughter of Ptah. And from Elephantine “Beth-El”, House of El or House of God.

In Phoenician iconography Anat is usually depicted nude with exaggerated sexual organs and a coiffure similar to Hathor. She is sometimes depicted with bow and arrow, and with the lion, her sacred animal. Otherwise she may be armed with a spear and shield, or a spear and a spindle.

An Egyptian inscription from Beth-Shan shows “Antit” with a plumed crown (very similar to the White Crown of Egypt). In her left hand is the “Scepter of Happiness”, and in her right the “Ankh of Life”. Iconography at Tanis from the time of Ramesses II shows Anat on a throne with lance, battle ax, and shield above an inscription reading, “To Antit that she may give life, prosperity, and health to the Ka of Hesi-Nekht”.

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Wiki Info

Anat, also ‘Anat is a major northwest Semitic goddess.

Anat in Ugarit

In the Ugaritic Ba‘al/Hadad cycle ‘Anat is a violent war-goddess, a virgin in Ugarit (btlt ‘nt) though the sister and lover of the great Ba‘al known as Hadad elsewhere. Ba‘al is usually called the son of Dagon and sometimes the son of El. ‘Anat is addressed by El as “daughter”. Either one relationship or the other is probably figurative.

‘Anat’s titles used again and again are “virgin ‘Anat” and “sister-in-law of the peoples” (or “progenitress of the peoples” or “sister-in-law, widow of the Li’mites”).

In a fragmentary passage from Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), Syria ‘Anat appears as a wild and furious warrior in a battle, wading knee-deep in blood, striking off heads, cutting off hands, binding the heads to her torso and the hands in her sash, driving out the old men and townsfolk with her arrows, her heart filled with joy. “Her character in this passage anticipates her subsequent warlike role against the enemies of Baal”.

’Anat boasts that she has put an end to Yamm the darling of El, to the seven-headed serpent, to Arsh the darling of the gods, to Atik ‘Quarrelsome’ the calf of El, to Ishat ‘Fire’ the bitch of the gods, and to Zabib ‘flame?’ the daughter of El. Later, when Ba‘al is believed to be dead, she seeks after Ba‘al “like a cow for its calf” and finds his body (or supposed body) and buries it with great sacrifices and weeping. ‘Anat then finds Mot, Ba‘al/Hadad’s supposed slayer and she seizes Mot, splits him with a sword, winnows him with a sieve, burns him with fire, grinds him with millstones and scatters the remnants to the birds.

Text CTA 10 tells how ‘Anat seeks after Ba‘al who is out hunting, finds him, and is told she will bear a steer to him. Following the birth she brings the new calf to Ba‘al on Mount Zephon. But nowhere in these texts is ‘Anat explicitly Ba‘al/Hadad’s consort. To judge from later traditions ‘Athtart (who also appears in these texts) is more likely to be Ba‘al/Hadad’s consort. But of course northwest Semitic culture permitted more than one wife and liaisons outside marriage are normal for deities in all pantheons.

In the North Canaanite story of Aqhat, the protagonist Aqhat son of the judge Danel (Dn’il) is given a wonderful bow and arrows which was created for ‘Anat by the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis but which was given to Dan[i]el for his infant son as a gift. When Aqhat grew to be a young man, the goddess ‘Anat tried to buy the bow from Aqhat, offering even immortality, but Aqhat refused all offers, calling her a liar because old age and death are the lot of all men. He then added to this insult by asking what would a woman do with a bow?

Like Inanna in the Epic of Gilgamesh, ‘Anat complained to El and threatened El himself if he did not allow her to take vengeance on Aqhat. El conceded. ‘Anat launched her attendant Yatpan in hawk form against Aqhat to knock the breath out of him and to steal the bow back. Her plan succeeds, but Aqhat is killed instead of merely beaten and robbed. In her rage against Yatpan, (text is missing here) Yatpan runs away and the bow and arrows fall into the sea. All is lost. ‘Anat mourned for Aqhat and for the curse that this act would bring upon the land and for the loss of the bow. The focus of the story then turns to Paghat, the wise younger sister of Aqhat. She sets off to avenge her brother’s death and to restore the land which has been devastated by drought as a direct result of the murder. The story is unfortunately incomplete. It breaks at an extremely dramatic moment when Paghat discovers that the mercenary whom she has hired to help her avenge the death is, in fact, Yatpan, her brother’s murderer. The parallels between the story of ‘Anat and her revenge on Mot for the killing of her brother are obvious. In the end, the seasonal myth is played out on the human level.

Gibson (1978) thinks Rahmay ‘The Merciful’, co-wife of El with Athirat, is also the goddess ‘Anat but he fails to take into account the primary source documents. Most Ugaritic scholars point out that the dual names of deities in Ugaritic poetry is an essential part of the verse-form and that two names for the same deity are traditionally mentioned in parallel lines. In the same way Athirat, is called Elath (meaning “The Goddess”) in paired couplets. The poetic structure can also be seen in early Hebrew verse forms.

Anat in Egypt

Anat first appears in Egypt in the 16th dynasty (the Hyksos period) along with other northwest Semitic deities. She was especially worshipped in her aspect of a war goddess, often paired with the goddess `Ashtart. In the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two goddesses appear as daughters of Re and are given in marriage to the god Set, who had been identified with the Semitic god Hadad.

During the Hyksos period Anat had temples in the Hyksos capital of Avaris and in Beth-Shan (Palestine) as well as being worshipped in Memphis. On inscriptions from Memphis of 15th to 12th centuries BCE, Anat is called “Bin-Ptah”, Daughter of Ptah. She is associated with Reshpu, (Canaanite: Resheph) in some texts and sometimes identified with the native Egyptian goddess Neith. She is sometimes called “Queen of Heaven”. Her iconography varies, but she is usually shown carrying one or more weapons.

The name of Anat-her, a shadowy Egyptian ruler of this time, is evidently derived from “Anat”.

In the New Kingdom Ramesses II made ‘Anat his personal guardian in battle and enlarged Anat’s temple in Pi-Ramesses. Ramesses named his daughter (whom he later married) Bint-Anat ‘Daughter of Anat’. His dog appears in a carving in Beit el Wali temple with the name “Anat-in-vigor” and one of his horses was named ‘Ana-herte ‘Anat-is-satisfied’.

Anat and Athene

In a Cyprian inscription (KAI. 42) the Greek goddess Athêna Sôteira Nikê is equated with ‘Anat (who is described in the inscription as the strength of life : l‘uzza hayim).

Anat is also presumably the goddess whom Sanchuniathon calls Athene, a daughter of El, mother unnamed, who with Hermes (that is Thoth) councelled El on the making of a sickle and a spear of iron, presumably to use against his father Uranus. However, in the Baal cycle, that rôle is assigned to Asherah / ‘Elat and ‘Anat is there called the “Virgin.”

Possible late transfigurations

The goddess ‘Atah worshipped at Palmyra may possibly be in origin identical with ‘Anat. ‘Atah was combined with ‘Ashtart under the name Atar into the goddess ‘Atar‘atah known to the Hellenes as Atargatis. If this origin for ‘Atah is correct, then Atargatis is effectively a combining of ‘Ashtart and ‘Anat.

It has also been proposed that (Indo-)Iranian Anahita meaning ‘immaculate’ in Avestan (a ‘not’ + ahit ‘unclean’) is a variant of ‘Anat. It is however unlikely given that the Indo-Iranian roots of the term are related to the Semitic ones and although—through conflation—Aredvi Sura Anahita (so the full name) inherited much from Ishtar-Inanna, the two are considered historically distinct.

In the Book of Zohar, ‘Anat is numbered among the holiest of angelic powers under the name of Anathiel.

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