Lotus-Eater | Island, Immortality & Mythology (2024)

FAQs

Lotus-Eater | Island, Immortality & Mythology? ›

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 the ship and chained to the rowing-benches, or they would never have returned to their duties.

In the Odyssey specifically, the Lotus Eaters are mysterious people who live on a small island. They regularly consume lotus plants that cause them to live in a perpetual state of bliss. Their lifestyle causes them to lose all sense of urgency. Odysseus and his men spend some time on the island of the Lotus Eaters.

The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were a narcotic, causing the inhabitants to sleep in peaceful apathy. After they ate the lotus, they would forget their home and loved ones and long only to stay with their fellow lotus-eaters.

Odysseus and his men had lived on the sweet, intoxicating fruits of a tree, producing its lotus-like flowers. They got this name due to their unique properties and that kept them in a state of forgetfulness. So when the men ate the fruit, they all just stopped caring and were constantly lazy and forgetting things.

The poem describes a group of mariners who, upon eating the lotos, are put into an altered state and isolated from the outside world. The title and concept derives from the lotus-eaters in Greek mythology.

Figuratively, 'lotus-eater' denotes "a person who spends their time indulging in pleasure and luxury rather than dealing with practical concerns".

As a heroic figure, Odysseus is loyal and dutiful, putting his home and family before all things. Returning home to Ithaca is not only his heart's desire, but a duty of the highest virtue. The Lotus Eaters' evil is interfering with this lofty virtue and turning the wayward seafarers aside with their tainted fruit.

Answer and Explanation: The lotus-eaters themselves aren't overly dangerous, but the lotus is. In Homer's The Odyssey, the lotus is a highly addictive plant that simulates a narcotic high, leaving its victim in a daze and desiring nothing more than more lotus.

The evil of the Lotus Eaters, then, though they are hospitable and kind, is that Odysseus's men turn “forgetful of their homeland,” for which they've fought and killed, and to which they are attempting to return.

What do you mean by being a lotus eater? This is a phrase taken from ancient Greek mythology. According to myth the Lotophagi were a race that lived on an island where only lotuses grew. They ate only lotuses, which were narcotic, and so lived in a state of blissful apathy.

What is the dark meaning of lotus flower? ›

The lotus flower symbolizes rising from a dark place into beauty and rebirth, as this is precisely how a lotus flower grows.

In Hinduism, the lotus represents spiritual enlightenment, beauty, fertility, purity, prosperity and eternity. It is said that there's a lotus flower in every Hindu's heart, and that when this lotus blooms, the person achieves enlightenment. The lotus is also an important symbol in the Hindu tantric tradition.

When Odysseus and his men encounter the Lotus-Eaters, they are offered the plant, which some choose to consume causing them to become uninterested in returning home. The Lotus-Eaters are certainly not monsters like the Laestrygonians.

The Lotus Eaters aim to keep people with them indefinitely by offering an enticing state of perpetual bliss through their lotus flowers. While they don't directly "feed off" those they ensnare, they create a captivating environment that makes it hard for individuals to leave or even recognize the passage of time.

Countless themes are taken from this poem, but one theme that many people may glaze over is the extremely morbid tone of death and its purpose. Used as an archetype for the audience, the purpose of this morbid theme of death is to help understand and cope with mortality, especially during that time period.

Eating the Lotos plant allows the sailors to think about death in a new way—not as something scary, but as an inevitable, calm, even comfortable part of life.

The Lotus Hotel and Casino is likely derived from the myth of the Lotus Tree. In the Odyssey, there was a tribe called the Lotus-eaters, who were addicted to the fruit of the tree. When Odysseus encountered this tribe, some of his men tasted the fruit and never wanted to leave.

Since ancient times, it is believed that the lotus flower has magical healing powers because of its intrinsic ability to fully rejuvenate and blossom, even after long lapses in stressful conditions.

The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland is a children's book about a young girl who took a lotus seed from a palace in her homeland long ago. She kept the seed with her through her arranged marriage and when she had to flee Vietnam because of a civil war.

in mythology: In the land of the lotus-eaters there were lotus flowers that poisoned the mind. Once the lotus leaves were eaten, you were addicted to it and would lose your mind and your will to do anything else. Odysseus dragged the three men back to the ship and tied them down, warning no one else to eat the lotus.