Lotus-Eater

Lotus-Eater, in Greek mythology, one of a tribe encountered by the Greek hero Odysseus during his return to Ithaca from Troy, where the Greeks had been victorious in the Trojan War. Odysseus arrived in an unfamiliar land after a north wind had driven him and his men from Cape Malea (Homer, Odyssey; Book IX). The local inhabitants, whose distinctive practice is indicated by their name, invited Odysseus’ scouts to eat of the mysterious plant. Those who did so were overcome by a blissful forgetfulness; they had to be dragged back to their ships and chained to the rowing-benches, or they would never have returned to their duties. Odysseus and his crew then sailed on to their next stop: the land of the Cyclopes, where they encountered Polyphemus.

The 5th-century-bc historian Herodotus located the Lotus-Eaters on the Libyan coast. The ancient Greeks applied the name “Libya” generally to North Africa and the Tunisian island of Djerba is commonly identified as the land of the Lotus-Eaters. Alfred, Lord Tennyson brought the story to the modern world in his poem “The Lotos-Eaters” (1832).

The Greeks called several non-narcotic plants lōtos, but the name may have been used in this case for the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), the ripe seed pod of which resembles the pod of the true lotus. Some theories suggest that the plant of forgetfulness was the jujube (Ziziphus jujuba). The phrase “to eat lotus” is used metaphorically by numerous ancient writers to mean “to forget,” or “to be unmindful.”