The sailors must show courage in the face of a huge wave that threatens to engulf them. The captain of the ship, the mighty hero Odysseus, knows that the wave, though dangerous, will also roll the ship ashore. Therefore, he wants his men to put aside their perfectly reasonable fears and try to focus on the bigger picture. If the sailors show courage in the face of imminent danger, they will be rewarded with the feeling of dry land beneath their feet.

Once they've safely navigated through the crashing wave, Odysseus and his men find themselves on a lush paradise island populated by strange men, the Lotos-Eaters, who inhabit a dreamy fantasy world brought on by their consumption of the fruit of the lotos flower. A number of sailors partake of the fruit and immediately start to forget about returning home. Instead, they'd much rather stay on the island of the Lotos-Eaters, spending the rest of their days in sleepy tranquility. It turns out, then, that the pungent fruit of the lotos flower was a much bigger threat to Odysseus and his men than any wave.