<tunu: salute>

The Lotus-eaters. Odysseus and his men meet the Lotus-eaters in The Odyssey, Homer’s epic. These mellow people seduce and detain the soldiers with the fruits and flowers of the Lotus, some of the men becoming so addicted that they need to be carried back to the ship, in tears. Yet real-life searches for the infamous (is)land have yielded no solid evidence despite theoretical leads. Real or not, Lotus Eaters reappear in song and myth. Mystery about the elusive people and specifics of the lotus plant remains. The Greek word lôtos can refer to a fodder plant, a date-plum, the nettle-tree, a jujube, etc. The Blue Lotus, a.k.a. the Water-lily, can be processed into a soporific or a mild hallucinogenic and is found throughout Egyptian iconography. Most likely, the lotus plant of lore had intense narcotic effects.