37 The Odyssey (The Lotus Eaters) by Homer
The Odyssey
Human beings are always tempted to seek refuge from sorrows and difficulties rather than face such trials directly. This brief adventure, recounted by the ancient poet Homer in The Odyssey, offers a rich account of the temptation to “mediate” painful experience.
The Odyssey is the story of the Greek King Odysseus’s ten-year journey home after the ten-year Trojan War. Just before the adventure retold below, Odysseus relates the harsh trial he and his men endured immediately after leaving Troy, and how very dispirited they were; in “pain and weariness,” they huddle[d] “together eating [their] hearts out.”
At this low moment, they are blown off course and come ashore in the land of the Lotus-Eaters. After the men have made camp and rallied to refresh themselves, Odysseus sends two scouts and a herald to see who lives in this still-unknown land. The three men discover the hospitable Lotus-Eaters and taste their “flowering food”; thereafter they long only to remain among the Lotus-Eaters and “forget the way home.”
Despite the herald’s apparent failure to return with a report, Odysseus finds his enthralled men. He takes all three back to their ships “by force,” tying them under the benches. He and the remaining men hastily flee the island, lest someone else taste lotus and “forget the way home.” – Leon Kass
The Odyssey (The Lotus Eaters) by Homer
Thence for nine days’ space I was borne by direful winds over the teeming deep; but on the tenth we set foot on the land of the Lotus-eaters, who eat a flowery food. There we went on shore and drew water, and straightway my comrades took their meal by the swift ships. But when we had tasted food and drink, I sent forth some of my comrades to go and learn who the men were, who here ate bread upon the earth; two men I chose, sending with them a third as a herald. So they went straightway and mingled with the Lotus-eaters, and the Lotus-eaters did not plan death for my comrades, but gave them of the lotus to taste. And whosoever of them ate of the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus, had no longer any wish to bring back word or to return, but there they were fain to abide among the Lotus-eaters, feeding on the lotus, and forgetful of their homeward way. These men, therefore, I brought back perforce to the ships, weeping, and dragged them beneath the benches and bound them fast in the hollow ships; and I bade the rest of my trusty comrades to embark with speed on the swift ships, lest perchance anyone should eat of the lotus and forget his homeward way. So they went on board straightway and sat down upon the benches, and sitting well in order smote the grey sea with their oars. (from Gutenberg.org)
Definition of Lotus Eaters from Britannica
Listen to music by Steely Dan inspired by The Odyssey.
Consider this:
- While Odysseus fears that he is trapped on Kalypso’s island forever, he can take no pleasure in the nymph, but “would lie beside her of necessity.” Once he learns that he is leaving, the two “enjoy themselves in love.” Why does desire fade at the prospect of eternity?
- Why does Odysseus choose a life of struggle over ease, life with an aging woman over life with an eternally youthful nymph, and mortal life at home instead of eternal life in paradise? In short, why does he choose to die? Would you make the same choice?
- Why are “men” characterized as “eaters of bread?” What does it mean to be eaters of flowers, instead? What can one assume about a people that eat bread? Or, more generally, to what extent does what we eat convey who we are?
- The Lotus-Eaters had no “thoughts of destroying” Odysseus’s men, “but they only gave them lotus to taste of.” And yet, Odysseus acts as if their destruction was imminent. Is he right? What does it mean to “forget the way home?” Might such forgetting be tantamount to destruction? In general, is forgetting — memory loss — tantamount to destruction?
- Eaters of lotus live entirely and seemingly blissfully in the moment. Though they are living in the present, can they be said to be of the present? Can they be said to be living? Are they still themselves? Are they really happy?
