Lotophagi

Lotus Eaters and Lotos Eaters redirects here. For other uses, see The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters may refer to* Lotophagi , a race of people in Greek mythology from an island or peninsula near Northern Africa dominated by lotus plants....
.

"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of nine 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.

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Lotus Eaters and Lotos Eaters redirects here. For other uses, see The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters may refer to* Lotophagi , a race of people in Greek mythology from an island or peninsula near Northern Africa dominated by lotus plants....
.

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, the Lotophagi (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , lotus-eaters) were a race of people from an island near North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
 dominated by "lotus" plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic

Narcotic

The term narcotic is believed to have been coined by the Greek physician Galen to refer to agents that benumb or deaden, causing loss of feeling or paralysis....
 and addictive, 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 or concern to emotional, social, or physical life....
. Some scholars have linked the lotus with the Opium Poppy

Opium poppy

The Opium Poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the type of poppy from which opium and many refined opiates, including morphine, thebaine, codeine, papaverine, and noscapine, are extracted....
 flower, which would have been well known to the ancient Greeks.

In the relevant part from the Odyssey

Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
, Odysseus tells how adverse north winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea

Cape Malea

Cape Malea is one of the peninsulas in the southeast of the Peloponnese in Greece. It separates the Ionian Sea in the west from the Aegean Sea in the east....
, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus:

"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of nine 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."

In modern usage, the term or its English equivalent "lotus-eaters" is used as a pejorative. It refers to persons who are addicted to illicit plant based or other drugs and who have lost their will to productively contribute to society. It can also mean persons who are insulated from the real-world consequences of their own poor judgment or laziness, e.g. by reason of academic tenure or idle wealth. It may be used to sneer at intellectuals who are prone to grandiose ideas, but not themselves particularly assiduous or capable in the realization of their lofty, impractical speculations.

Which "lotus" did the Lotus-eaters eat?

The Greek word lôtos can refer to several different plants:

• a fodder plant such as a species of Trifolium, Melilot
  Melilot
  
  Melilot , also known as Sweet Clover, is a genus in the family Fabaceae. Members are known as common grassland plants and as weeds of cultivated ground....
   or Trigonella
  Trigonella
  
  Trigonella is a large genus from the family Fabaceae, with about 130 species. The best known member is the herb Fenugreek....
  , the Lotus corniculatus
  Lotus corniculatus
  
  Lotus 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 arborea
  Medicago arborea
  
  Medicago arborea is a plant species of the genus Medicago. Common names include moon trefoil, shrub medick, and tree medick....
  
• the sweet and succulent persimmon
  Persimmon
  
  A persimmon, known to the ancient Greeks as "the fruit of the gods" is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family ....
   fruit of the date-plum Diospyros lotus
• a water-lily, either Nymphaea lotus
  Nymphaea lotus
  
  Nymphaea lotus, the Tiger Lotus or Egyptian White Water-lily, is a flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae that grows in various parts of East Africa and Southeast Asia....
  , Nymphaea caerulea
  Nymphaea caerulea
  
  Nymphaea caerulea, also known as the Egyptian blue lily or sacred blue lily, is a blue Nymphaeaceae in the genus Nymphaea that grows along the Nile, amongst other locations ....
  , or Nymphaea stellata. Recent studies have shown that the blue water-lily of the Nile, Nymphaea caerulea
  Nymphaea caerulea
  
  Nymphaea caerulea, also known as the Egyptian blue lily or sacred blue lily, is a blue Nymphaeaceae in the genus Nymphaea that grows along the Nile, amongst other locations ....
  , 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 soporific
  Sleep
  
  Sleep is the natural state of bodily rest observed in humans and other animals. It is common to all mammals and birds, and is also seen in many reptiles, amphibians and fish....
   and, in some formulations, has psychedelic
  Psychedelic
  
  The word 'psychedelic' is an English term coined from the Greek language words for "soul," ???? , and "manifest," d???? . A psychedelic experience is characterized by the perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly ordinary fetters....
   properties. It is very common in Egyptian iconography which suggests its use in a religious context.
• the nettle-tree, Celtis australis
  Celtis australis
  
  The European nettle tree also known as European Hackberry or Lote tree ,, is a deciduous tree that can grow 20 or 25 meters in height....
  
• Ziziphus lotus
  Ziziphus lotus
  
  Ziziphus lotus is a deciduous shrub in the buckthorn Family Rhamnaceae, native to the Mediterranean region. It can reach a height of 2-5 m, with shiny green leaves about 5 cm long....
  , a relative of the jujube
  Jujube
  
  Ziziphus zizyphus , commonly called Jujube, Red Date , or Chinese Date, is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily for its fruits....
  

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....
, that is traditionally taken to be the plant meant in the Odyssey.

Location of the island of the Lotophagi

Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 mentions the Lotophagi in his description of North Africa and identifies the lotus as a plant similar to the date palm

Date Palm

Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as the Date Palm, is a Arecaceae in the genus Phoenix , extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit....
 .

The island of the Lotophagi may be the modern Djerba

Djerba

Djerba is, at 514 km?, the largest island off North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia....
. It is a likely candidate because there are very few islands on the North African coast; however, Herodotus says that the Lotophagi 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, dating from 4th century BC or 3rd century BC. The name Scylax is thought to be an appeal to authority: Herodotus mentions a Scylax of Caryanda, a Greeks navigator who explored the coast of the Indian Ocean on behalf of the Persians....
, the so called lotus-eaters live in a peninsula in the Illyrian territory. This would mean that Oddyseus 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:

"??t?f????. 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'] ?????e? (c. 178) 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 s??^??? is the lentisk tree."

See also

• The Lotus Eaters
  The Lotus Eaters
  
  The Lotus Eaters may refer to:* Lotophagi , a race of people in Greek mythology from an island or peninsula near Northern Africa dominated by lotus plants....
  
• Lotus
  Lotus (genus)
  
  Lotus is a genus that includes bird's-foot trefoils and deervetches and contains many dozens of species distributed world-wide. Depending on the taxonomic authority, roughly between 70 and 150 are accepted....
   (plants)