a water-lily, either Nymphaea lotus, Nymphaea caerulea, or Nymphaea stellata.the sweet and succulent persimmon fruit of the date-plum Diospyros lotus.a fodder plant such as a species of Trifolium, Melilot or Trigonella, the Lotus corniculatus, the fellbloom, or Medicago arborea.Some of the proposed species, based in part on Herodotus' assertion, include: Lotus plant īecause the Greek word λωτός : lōtós can refer to several different plants, there is some ambiguity as to which "lotus" appears in the Odyssey. Pseudo-Scylax mentions lotus-eaters in area of northern and central Dalmatia ("namely the Iaderatenai and Boulinoi"). Later, this identification is supported by Strabo.
Polybius identifies the land of the lotus-eaters as the island of Djerba (ancient Meninx), off the coast of Tunisia. The lotus-eaters even succeed in obtaining from it a sort of wine. The lotus fruit is about the size of the lentisk berry and in sweetness resembles the date. Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, was sure that the lotus-eaters still existed in his day, in coastal Libya:Ī 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. 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. 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. 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. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. 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. In Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey Book 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: Odysseus' men in an unconscious state, by W.
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