Lotos Eaters and The Odyssey
When I first read through "The Lotos Eaters," by Alfred Lord Tennyson, I could not immediately see any similarities with The Odyssey. After reading it for the second time, I understood a little bit more, and with the third read, even more. I will start off by giving a brief summary of both pieces. In The Odyssey, there is a great hero from the Trojan War named Odysseus. The epic narrative is the story of his journey through many harsh conditions and vile beasts. Eventually, he returns home, in Ithaca, only to fight many suitors away from his wife.
"The Lotos Eaters" is a poem that elaborates on one particular misadventure in The Odyssey, when Odysseus and his crew port at a mysterious and gloomy looking land. "The Lotos Eaters" starts off the way an epic poem might, with the lines;
-"'Courage!' He said, and pointed toward the land,
'This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.'-
The first five stanzas in the poem are narrative, like you might read in The Odyssey. It is told from an omnipotent viewpoint; the author can see everything, hear everything, and knows everything. After the "mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came,' they give gifts of Lotos flowers to the crew. When the men eat of the exotic flower, sounds and voices seem to become far off, and they are lost in their dreams. They tell Odysseus that they wish to say here, with the Lotos eaters, and not return home. From here on, there are no clear similarities with The Odyssey. The remainder of "The Lotos Eaters" is told from the viewpoint of the ship's crew. They describle at length the troubles and hardships that they have gone through on their journey. Throughout the remainder of the poem, the crew does a fairly good job of displaying how miserable their lives have been. They say that because they have been away from home for so long, returning home would only make things worse for everyone involved. So instead of going home, the crew desides to stay where they are, with the Lotos-eaters.
-"'Courage!' He said, and pointed toward the land,
'This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.'-
The first five stanzas in the poem are narrative, like you might read in The Odyssey. It is told from an omnipotent viewpoint; the author can see everything, hear everything, and knows everything. After the "mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came,' they give gifts of Lotos flowers to the crew. When the men eat of the exotic flower, sounds and voices seem to become far off, and they are lost in their dreams. They tell Odysseus that they wish to say here, with the Lotos eaters, and not return home. From here on, there are no clear similarities with The Odyssey. The remainder of "The Lotos Eaters" is told from the viewpoint of the ship's crew. They describle at length the troubles and hardships that they have gone through on their journey. Throughout the remainder of the poem, the crew does a fairly good job of displaying how miserable their lives have been. They say that because they have been away from home for so long, returning home would only make things worse for everyone involved. So instead of going home, the crew desides to stay where they are, with the Lotos-eaters.
This contrasts greatly with The Odyssey in that throughout the Odyssey, the ship's crew is hardly even considered in decisions of importance, especially if that decision was to give up their attempts at reaching home. Odysseus is the only one who makes choices, let alone talk for more than three lines! In "The Lotos Eaters," however, there are seven stanzas, and one of them the size of two, all dedicated to the crew and their complaints. This takes the reader deeper into the internal struggles of all the sailors. The Odyssey never goes into any depth concerning the feelings of the crew, or even Odysseus, for that matter.
Another main difference between the two pieces is one that I have already mentioned. The Odyssey is epic poetry. I will quickly explain what separates epic poetry from more common poems. Epic poetry usually begins at the "medias res." This means that the narrative begins around the middle, or even the end, of the story instead of following more conventional linear timeline. Most epics, including The Odyssey, start off with the author or storyteller offering an invocation to the muses. This means that he asks the muses, the Greek goddesses of music and storytelling, for help in telling the tale. The settings in epic poetry often covers vast areas of the Ancient world, from historical locations to mythical lands. One last major characteristic of epic poetry is the gods. The poems often show divine intervention in mortal affairs. This final point stands out clearly in The Odyssey, when every time something finally goes right for Odysseus (usually because of help from Athena), one of the Gods, often Poseidon, will ruin everything for him and his journey.
Though The Odyssey and "The Lotos Eaters" deal with some of the same main characters and even the same story, the two are completely different. I read each one once, then each at least once more when the assignment was giving. I looked for any similarities that I could find, but mostly found only differences. I did enjoy the little look into the crew's opinion of the whole journey, because in The Odyssey, Homer focused on nothing, but every event and misadventure was actually slightly vague. There are very few detail, names, and certainly no personal thoughts that are mentioned. "The Lotos Eaters" made the crew members seem more like people, with real troubles, worries, fear, and cares. The poem characterized them, and made them seem more like real people, and less like "Red Shirts."
