In Greek mythology, the lotus-eaters (Greek λωτοφάγοι, lōtophagoi), also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses (singular lotophagus /ləˈtɒfəɡəs/) or lotophages (singular lotophage /ˈloʊtəfeɪdʒ/), were a race of people living on an island near North Africa (possibly Djerba) dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.
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In Odyssey IX, Odysseus tells how adverse north winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus, headed westwards for Ithaca:
"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-Eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return; nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."[1]
This passage served as the source for Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lotos-Eaters." It is also referenced in the fifth chapter of Ulysses by James Joyce, also titled "Lotus Eaters," and in the sixth chapter of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.
Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, was sure that the lotus-eaters still existed in his day, in coastal Libya:
A promontory jutting out into the sea from the country of the Gindanes is inhabited by the lotus-eaters, who live entirely on the fruit of the lotus-tree. The lotus fruit is about the size of the lentisk berry,[2] and in sweetness resembles the date. The lotus-eaters even succeed in obtaining from it a sort of wine.[3]
Because the Greek word lôtos can refer to several different plants, there is some ambiguity as to which "lotus" appears in the Odyssey. Some of the proposed species, based in part on Herodotus' assertion, include:[4]
It is the last of these, or another member of the genus Ziziphus, that is traditionally taken to be the plant meant in the Odyssey.
A.D. Godley asserted in his notes on Herodotus:
The island of the lotus-eaters may be the modern Djerba. It is a likely candidate because there are very few islands on the North African coast; however, Herodotus says that the Lotus Eaters live on a peninsula, not an island: "There is a headland jutting out into the sea from the land of the Gindanes; on it live the Lotus Eaters, whose only fare is the lotus. The lotus fruit is the size of a mastich-berry: it has a sweet taste like the fruit of a date-palm; the Lotus Eaters not only eat it, but make wine of it."[5]
On the other hand, according to the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, the so called lotus-eaters live in a peninsula in the Illyrian territory. This would mean that Odysseus did not get lost in the Mediterranean Sea, but in the Adriatic Sea instead.[6]
Further, according to W. W. How and J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus:
"Λωτοφάγοι. The tribal name has been displaced by the descriptive 'Lotophagi'; probably the 'Lotus-eaters’'are really (in whole or in part) the Giridanes, who are mentioned by no other ancient geographer except Stephen of Byzantium, following H. Pliny (v. 28) calls the 'Lotus-eaters' Machroae, of which name some think H.'s [Herodotus'] Μάχλυες (c. 178) Meshwesh a blundering corruption. H. is precise in describing the lotus, because of its legendary fame in Homer (Od. ix. 84 seq.) as causing forgetfulness of home and family; Polybius (xii. 2) describes it even more fully. It is a species of thorn tree, the jujube (Zizyphus vulgaris) of the genus Rhamnaceae, to which the English buckthorn belongs, with a fruit like a plum in size and shape, which is eaten, especially when dried. The Egyptian lotus (ii. 92. 2 n.) is quite distinct. See Rawlinson ad loc. for six different kinds of lotus. A sort of wine is still made from the fruit. The σχι̂νος is the lentisk tree.[7]"
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