Lotus-eaters
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, the lotus-eaters (Greek
, lōtophagoi), also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses (singular lotophagus l) or lotophages (singular lotophage ˈ), 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
.
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
:
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
:
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.
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.
Further, according to W. W. How and J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus:
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, the lotus-eaters (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, lōtophagoi), also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses (singular lotophagus l) or lotophages (singular lotophage ˈ), were a race of people living on an island near North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
(possibly Djerba
Djerba
Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...
) dominated by lotus
Lotus tree
The lotus tree is a plant that occurs in two stories from Greek mythology:* In Homer's Odyssey, the lotus bore a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness and was the only food of an island people called the Lotophagi or Lotus-eaters...
plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy
Apathy
Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...
.
In literature
In OdysseyOdyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
IX, Odysseus tells how adverse north winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea
Cape Malea
Cape Maleas is a peninsula and cape in the southeast of the Peloponnese in Greece. To distinguish it from the cape, the peninsula is sometimes referred to as "Epidavros Limira" peninsula, after the most prominent ancient city located on it. It separates the Laconian Gulf in the west from the...
, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus, headed westwards for Ithaca
Ithaca
Ithaca or Ithaka is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. It lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and...
:
"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."
This passage served as the source for Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lotos-Eaters
The Lotos-Eaters
The Lotos-Eaters is a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, published in Tennyson's 1832 poetry collection. It was inspired by his trip to Spain with his close friend Arthur Hallam, where they visited the Pyrenees mountains...
." It is also referenced in the fifth chapter of Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, also titled "Lotus Eaters," and in the sixth chapter of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
's The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1920, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s. In 1920, The Age of Innocence was serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine, and later released by D...
.
Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, in the fifth century BC, was sure that the lotus-eaters still existed in his day, in coastal Libya
Ancient Libya
The Latin name Libya referred to the region west of the Nile Valley, generally corresponding to modern Northwest Africa. Climate changes affected the locations of the settlements....
:
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, and in sweetness resembles the dateDate PalmThe date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...
. The lotus-eaters even succeed in obtaining from it a sort of wine.
The lotus plant
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:- a fodder plant such as a species of Trifolium, MelilotMelilotMelilotus, known as Melilot or Sweet-clover, is a genus in the family Fabaceae. Members are known as common grassland plants and as weeds of cultivated ground. Originally from Europe and Asia, it is now found worldwide....
or TrigonellaTrigonellaTrigonella is a genus from the family Fabaceae. The best known member is the herb Fenugreek.-Species:The genus Trigonella currently has 37 recognized species:* Trigonella anguina Delile* Trigonella arabica Delile...
, the Lotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatus is a common flowering plant native to grassland temperate Eurasia and North Africa. The common name is Bird's-foot Trefoil , though the common name is often also applied to other members of the genus...
, the fellbloom, or Medicago arboreaMedicago arboreaMedicago arborea is a plant species of the genus Medicago. Common names include moon trefoil, shrub medick, and tree medick. It is found throughout Europe and especially in the Mediterranean basin. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, which is capable of... - the sweet and succulent persimmonPersimmonA persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family . The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant...
fruit of the date-plumDate-plumDiospyros lotus, better known as the Date-plum or Caucasian Persimmon is a widely cultivated species of the genus Diospyros, native to subtropical southwest Asia and southeast Europe. Its English name derives from the small fruit, which have a taste reminiscent of both plums and dates...
Diospyros lotus - a water-lily, either Nymphaea lotusNymphaea lotusNymphaea lotus, the Tiger Lotus, White lotus or Egyptian White Water-lily, is a flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae-Description:It grows in various parts of East Africa and Southeast Asia....
, Nymphaea caeruleaNymphaea caeruleaNymphaea caerulea, also known as the Blue Egyptian water lily or sacred blue lily, is a water-lily in the genus Nymphaea.-Distribution:Its original habitat may have been along the Nile and other locations in East Africa...
, or Nymphaea stellata. Recent studies have shown that the blue water-lily of the Nile, Nymphaea caeruleaNymphaea caeruleaNymphaea caerulea, also known as the Blue Egyptian water lily or sacred blue lily, is a water-lily in the genus Nymphaea.-Distribution:Its original habitat may have been along the Nile and other locations in East Africa...
, also known as the blue lotus (already known under this name to the Greeks), is another candidate. It can be processed to be used as a soporificSleepSleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...
and, in some formulations, has psychotropic properties. It is very common in Egyptian iconographyIconographyIconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
which suggests its use in a religious context. - the nettle-tree, Celtis australisCeltis australisCeltis australis, commonly known as the European nettle tree, Mediterranean hackberry, lote tree, or honeyberry, is a deciduous tree that can grow 20 or 25 meters in height....
- Ziziphus lotusZiziphus lotusZiziphus lotus is a deciduous shrub in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, including the Sahara in Morocco.-Description:...
, a relative of the jujubeJujubeZiziphus zizyphus , commonly called jujube , red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily as a fruiting shade tree.-Distribution:Its precise natural distribution is uncertain due to extensive cultivation,...
It is the last of these, or another member of the genus Ziziphus
Ziziphus
Ziziphus is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate and subtropical regions throughout the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and long; some species are deciduous,...
, that is traditionally taken to be the plant meant in the Odyssey.
Location of the island of the lotus-eaters
A.D. Godley asserted in his notes on Herodotus:The island of the lotus-eaters may be the modern DjerbaDjerbaDjerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...
. 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."
On the other hand, according to the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax
Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax
The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax is an ancient Greek periplus that ranks among the minor Greek geographers, dating from 4th or 3rd century BC. The name of Scylax applied to the text is thought to be a pseudepigraphical appeal to authority: Herodotus mentions a Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek navigator...
, 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.
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) MeshweshMeshweshThe Meshwesh were an ancient Libyan tribe from beyond Cyrenaica where the Libu and Tehenu lived according to Egyptian references and who were probably of Central Berber ethnicity. Herodotus placed them in Tunisia and said of them to be sedentary farmers living in settled permanent houses as the...
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."