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What aspects of my life can be compared to the lotus flower eaters in The Odyssey?
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Aspects of life comparable to the lotus-eaters in "The Odyssey" include activities that absorb your attention and make you lose track of time, such as social media, video games, or engaging books. These activities, like the lotus flowers, can reduce ambition and make responsibilities seem less important. The comparison extends to addictive behaviors, such as substance abuse or excessive TV watching, which, though temporarily satisfying, can detract from meaningful pursuits and obligations.
Have you ever engaged in an activity that makes you lose all track of time and forget whatever it is that you probably ought to be doing instead? You can likely compare eating the lotus to one of these activities. I know I can lose myself in social media, scrolling and reading and scrolling and reading, and before I know it, an hour (or more!) has gone by, and I haven't done anything except be on social media. When this happens, I am, as the lotus-eaters were, totally content and seem not to think of anything else I was intending to do with my time. It seems to totally occupy me.
Some people are like this with video games too. If someone is really into their game, and they sit and play and play and play, without regard to other obligations like preparing a meal, running errands, or doing schoolwork...
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or housework, this would be comparable as well. I get this way with books sometimes too, especially when they arereally good. If I'm reading a book that's very engaging, I can completely lose track of time and other responsibilities. More often than not, it keeps me awake long after I meant to be asleep! All three of these rather typical situations could be compared to the episode with the lotus-eaters in The Odyssey.
The effects of the lotus flowers, as described in Homer's epic, are to render the eaters mild and dreamy, although technically awake: the flower subdues them and makes them lose their ambition and drive. When they eat the lotus flower, Odysseus's men feel overcome by weariness, and they no longer want to return to the effort of their voyage. Indeed, they have to be dragged back to the ship. So the lotus flower is sweet and addictive, renders its eaters docile, and makes toil and ambition seem worthless by contrast to the idea of being allowed to just stay like this forever.
Many comparisons have been drawn between lotus flowers and opium, largely because of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem on the subject. Opium was a problem in Victorian England, and those who inhabited opium dens often forgot their ambition and drive in favor of staying in a useless, half-dreaming state in the dens, made docile by their drugs. As the earlier educator mentioned, anything in your life which seems to sap your ambition and make you want to do nothing but that thing, although it is ultimately pointless, would fit the analogy. Your lotus flower is anything you want to do to the exclusion of all else, because it is addictive and makes you feel rested, but is actually not good for you. This could be texting too much, or playing a video game obsessively, or watching season after season of your favorite TV show when you should be doing your homework. For some people, their lotus flower is something more physically harmful, such as alcohol or drugs, or the all-consuming power of an eating disorder, which can destroy a life. Effectively, anything which commands your continuing attention and yet really gives nothing back could be compared to the lotus flower.