S8E3 - You Odyssey This: Hubris and the Lotus Eaters

stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features vengeful seas, neglecting the gods, non-linear storytelling, lotus eaters, a hostile work environment, and invasion.

Okay, we're talking the Odyssey again today, and I think it's time for a little recap because we skipped a whole chunk of story, and now we're going to go back and talk about it.

This is one of your storytelling devices.

Well, not just mine.

This is how Homer tells this story, too.

The I Bet You're Wondering How I Got Here narrative is apparently thousands of years old.

So last episode, we found Odysseus broken and demoralized, trapped on the island of Ogigia for seven years.

He'd been missing for about 10 years while his family at home tried to run the kingdom without him, and he was finally able to escape with some divine intervention.

He almost died on the high seas because Poseidon hates him, and then he managed to wash up on the shore of a different island.

Fortunately, the inhabitants of this island were good people.

Odysseus had landed on the island paradise of Scyria, home of a kind and peaceful people known as the Phaeacians.

Odysseus had been rescued by Princess Nausica Nausica and her handmaidens, and she immediately brought him to the palace, had him cleaned up, and presented him to her parents, King Alcinius and Queen Arete.

After everything he'd been through, Odysseus was a little wary of strangers, and he had told the princess that he was merely a wind-tossed sailor and not Odysseus.

He was keeping his true identity under wraps for now.

He didn't really know what King Alcinius and Queen Arete would think when they discovered the shipwrecked king of a neighboring island in their midst.

Thank you, my king and queen, Odysseus said as he dropped to his knees.

I thank the gods for delivering me to your shores, and I am grateful for your hospitality.

It is more than a humble sailor like me should expect.

Nonsense, said the king.

All are welcome in Scyria, and those who sail the seas and brave the oceans deserve as much comfort as we can provide.

Come, sit at our table and tell us your tale.

And so they had a feast to welcome their new guest.

Odysseus was feeling relieved and more hopeful than he had in a long time.

The island of Scyria was close to Ithaca, and he wasn't a prisoner here.

There was food, wine, and good company, and the Phaeacians took great care of Odysseus as they would any traveler.

Hospitality was very important to all the Greeks.

Many ancient and modern interpreters identify Scyria as the modern-day island of Corfu, which which is approximately 68 miles or 110 kilometers away from Ithaca.

Queen Arete watched this new visitor carefully.

There was something about him that seemed special.

His confidence around royalty and, well, his general sophistication were not something that a normal common sailor would have.

He had a confident way of speaking and a great command of the language that made her suspect he might be more than he was making himself out to be.

Arete wasn't alone in being suspicious of Odysseus.

Some of the younger men on the island were a little tweaked by the newfound fascination with this shipwrecked sailor and they wanted to take him down a peg.

So as part of the celebration, there was an exhibition of athletic skills.

Javelins were thrown, races were run, and one of the athletes, a buff jock named Euryalis, openly mocked Odysseus, daring the old man to show off his athletic prowess.

Since Scyria was a peaceful kingdom, the Phaeacians who lived there were not great warriors, but they did excel at sailing, dancing, and sports.

King Alcinius scolded the young man, embarrassed by his rudeness to their guest, but Odysseus just laughed it off.

He casually pushed back his chair, strolled away from the table, and reached down to pick up a disc on the ground.

Oh,

the old man thinks he can throw, Euralis mocked.

Fine, discus it is.

The discus throw was part of the ancient Olympic pentathlon.

This event included the stadion, the javelin throw, the discus throw, the long jump, and wrestling.

In a matter of moments, there was a line of contenders each hurling the discus as far as they could.

Euralis flung his disc very far, but even that was outdistanced by Odysseus' toss.

With the strength of a warrior and the grace of experience, Odysseus threw his disc so far that even a second round of attempts failed.

No one could match him.

King Alcinius was impressed.

Queen Arete,

even more so.

And this display inspired her choice of after-dinner entertainment.

She called for their bard to sing a special song detailing the victory at Troy.

During the song, the queen watched Odysseus carefully.

Of course, he tried to maintain his composure, but emotions got the better of him, and eventually, Odysseus began to weep openly, remembering his fallen comrades and the horrors of the Trojan War.

Handing him a cloth to wipe his eyes, Queen Arete spoke plainly to Odysseus.

I think, sir, she said not unkindly, that you are more than just a simple Sim.

I suspect there is more to your story than you are letting on.

Odysseus agreed.

The ruse was over.

It was time to tell his tale.

I am Odysseus, Laertes' son and king of Ithaca.

He declared in a loud, clear voice.

There was a gasp among the court as he raised his eyes and looked around the room.

I am humbled by your hospitality, even more so knowing you thought at first I was simply a sailor.

I wish that any of my crew had been so fortunate.

But how did you get here?

asked King Alcinius.

Shouldn't you have returned home years ago?

That, Odysseus said, is a long story.

And it is a story that we would very much like to hear, the queen interjected.

But as your guest, I will be happy to oblige, replied Odysseus.

This is the part of the Odyssey where we learn about Odysseus' adventures as he tried to return home before he landed on Ogygia.

Right, remember that Homer sort of started this story near the end with things getting tense in Ithaca.

So now we get to hear how we got to that point.

Odysseus sat back, looked the crowd over, and decided to begin at the beginning, which was actually the end of the Trojan War.

But you know, before we get this story started with Odysseus, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and start at the beginning.

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More information at storypillar.com and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, everybody back?

Good.

Okay.

Everything you hear now is Odysseus telling King Alcinius and Queen Arete and all of the Phaeacians the story of how he got to their island in the first place.

He's going back to the end of the Trojan War.

Okay.

When the Trojan War was over, the Greeks were thrilled to return home.

Agamemnon had his pride, Menelaus had his wife back, and everyone else was probably just looking forward to going home and not being in a war, you know?

Of course, it probably didn't hurt that they also had a bunch of treasure they stole from the palace as well, but still, they were going home and that's what mattered.

Odysseus and his men were some of the last to leave the shores of Troy.

And for whatever reason, before they left Troy, they didn't feel the need to make an offering to Poseidon.

Maybe they felt like they were invincible because they'd just taken down the golden city of Troy, but whatever their thought process was, this was a huge mistake.

But we're not even going to deal with that today.

I mean, it doesn't even make the top 10 most dramatic things to happen happen in this episode.

You see, Odysseus had a big group, 12 ships and nearly 600 men.

So they didn't move quickly and they needed to stop frequently.

It's kind of like when your entire family is packed in one car for a long road trip.

It takes a lot longer than it would if it was just you and a grown-up, right?

So their first pit stop was the island of Ismaris, where they came upon the kingdom of the Kikones, which had offered aid to Troy during the war.

Of course, these people weren't expecting company, so 600 men showing up at their doorstep obviously took them by surprise.

Now, Odysseus didn't plan on overtaking the kingdom, but it turned out to be easy to do.

These people were entirely unprepared for an invasion, and the Greek soldiers overwhelmed them quickly.

After so long at war, it's possible that Odysseus and his crew didn't know how to interact normally with other people anymore, and an invasion was just the first thing they tried, you know?

Soon, the small army was feasting and relaxing, having forced the Ciconian people to serve and wait on them hand and foot.

The act of stealing goods from a place during a time of war or civil disorder is known as plundering.

The Greeks plundered a lot of Troy's neighboring towns during the war to feed and clothe their army.

After a short stay, Odysseus ordered his men to leave.

He wanted them to have some time to rest and recuperate.

They'd certainly earned that.

But it seemed that many of the Greek soldiers were liking the high life life they were living in this conquered land.

Many of them had forgotten what their homes were like.

But Odysseus hadn't.

The memory of his wife and son still burned in his mind.

He wanted to go home more than anything.

What's more, even though this island was beautiful and relaxing, Odysseus had a nagging sense that something was about to go wrong.

It had been way too easy to conquer this city.

Intuition is the faculty of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.

He had a hunch or gut feeling.

Oh, right, yes, definitely.

So, Odysseus's intuition turned out to be correct.

The Gikones weren't just standing by waiting for the Greeks to leave.

While Odysseus' men were relaxing and feasting, these soldiers were gathering reinforcements from the other side of the island and preparing to mount a counterattack.

Odysseus ordered his men to return to their ships, but most of them refused.

He stood on the beach with the handful of men who actually followed his orders, waiting to push his ships out to sea and paced impatiently.

Odysseus was on the verge of losing his temper, ready to pull each man back to the ship by his hair if he had to, when he heard a blood-curdling shriek from inside the island.

Then, things got a little crazy.

Suddenly, Everybody was running for the ships.

The Caconian reinforcements had arrived, and their attack caught the Greek soldiers completely unaware.

One minute, these men were half-dressed, lounging in the hammock while the servant brought them food and wine.

The next thing they know, they're running for their lives, clutching their armor, clothes, and whatever else they could carry as they sprinted for the safety of their ships.

Odysseus and the soldiers on the beach did their best to defend their brothers-at-arms, but it was clearly a rout.

Spears and arrows whizzed through the air as the men desperately tried to escape, and many of them were not lucky enough to make it.

Eventually, though, the remaining crew scrambled aboard the ships and began rowing for their lives, suddenly desperate to escape this island paradise that they had conquered so easily just a few days before.

In the previous episode, we discussed hubris or excessive pride as a theme in many Greek stories.

The behavior of the Greek soldiers here could be another instance of this.

Yeah, hubris might well be Odysseus' middle name, even though this time it was more his sailors than him who were overconfident.

But whatever you call it, it didn't last long for Odysseus and his men.

As soon as their boats pulled away from the island, they found themselves in the midst of a massive storm.

And this wasn't just a storm.

It was practically a hurricane.

Poseidon was furious.

Though rare, Hurricanes do sometimes form in the Mediterranean and are sometimes called medicanes.

Well, the wind and rain and clouds were so thick that Odysseus couldn't see the sky, let alone any land nearby.

The winds became so strong that they ripped the sails, so Odysseus instructed his men to pull them down and they used their oars to row the ships towards where they hoped land would be.

Eventually, the storm subsided, and they found a small isle where they were able to take harbor and repair their ships.

Odysseus needed time to get his bearings.

After the storm, he wasn't sure exactly where they were.

After a day or so, the Greeks set to sea once again, heading in the direction where they hoped home would be.

But once again, the winds were not their friend.

It wasn't a hurricane or a storm, but a foul wind blowing right at them.

Since they couldn't sail directly into the wind, they were nearly blown off course.

They spent nine days on the water fighting the winds until, on the 10th day, tired and exhausted, they were able to reach land again.

Odysseus and his men were tired and hungry and happy for the break.

They found a small stream that had fresh water, and so the crew sat on the beach and rested for a bit.

Of course, being on an unknown island made Odysseus feel a little uneasy, so he sent three men into the jungle to see if they could find any of the island's residents.

Odysseus wasn't looking for gold or even supplies.

He mostly just wanted to make sure they weren't going to get ambushed again.

After an hour or so, Odysseus began to wonder what happened to these men.

I mean, the island wasn't that big, and he figured at least one of them would have returned by now with news.

A few of his men volunteered to go in search of the others, but Odysseus told them to stay put.

I will go and find them, he said.

You all have worked hard enough and earned your rest.

And so Odysseus began his own trek into the jungle.

The forest was lush and green, and every so often he would come upon a small pool of water with beautiful flowers floating on top.

Each of these flowers seemed to have a strange fruit in the middle of their bloom.

There was a warm and inviting fragrance wafting off each of the petals, and Odysseus suddenly felt hungry and sleepy at the same time.

It was all he could do to stop himself from sitting down at the water's edge just to smell these flowers, but of course, he knew there could be none of that.

He needed to find his men and continue their journey home.

These flowers resemble traditional lotus flowers, sometimes mistaken for the water lily.

The lotus only blooms in pink or white.

The roots grow at the bottom of a river or pond, and the leaves bloom and float on the surface.

After a short walk, Odysseus began to hear voices coming from a clearing up ahead.

He unsheathed his sword and began to move slowly through the thick underbrush, listening carefully.

He couldn't make out what was being said, but the voices didn't sound threatening.

The tone was quiet and light, and he could even hear laughter.

What was going on?

Suddenly, Odysseus stepped into the clearing with his sword still drawn, and all of the conversation and laughter stopped.

It appeared to be a campsite of some sort.

There were a few hammocks strung from the trees, some straw mats with people dozing on them, and a campfire at the center around which several people lounged lazily, including his three men.

Odysseus, one of the men exclaimed.

Oh, good.

Hey, our captain is here.

Come, sir, you must try this amazing fruit.

The man held one of the lotus flowers up to Odysseus, and the king had to admit it smelled delicious.

The aroma was sweet and strong, and it made Odysseus' mouth water.

But some part of him actually found that concerning.

He pushed the flower away, and the soldier looked hurt.

You don't want it?

He said.

I wanted you to report back to me an hour ago, the king replied.

What is all this?

Who are these people?

His men looked at each other.

They seemed confused.

They looked like they were trying to remember someone's name, but they had long forgotten it.

After a moment, another voice spoke up.

It was one of the island's residents.

Some call us the lotus eaters, he said.

Most of us cannot remember when we came here.

In fact, it seems like we have always been here and always will be.

The man stood and slowly made his way over to Odysseus with another lotus flower in his hand.

He had long hair, a long beard, and his clothes were little more than rags.

His teeth were dirty and his eyes were glazed over, but his smile was as wide as the sky.

That is as it should be, the man man continued.

Once you taste the lotus, all your other wants and needs melt away.

You realize that you need nothing more in this world than to be here on this lovely island among the lotus petals.

For a moment, Odysseus wavered.

It did seem inviting, just having some snacks and chilling in a beautiful flowering jungle.

But then he looked at the three sailors from his ship.

In a way, they looked perfectly happy.

They were lounging by a fire, eating delicious fruit and enjoying the shade.

But he could also see a shadow of worry on their faces, like they had forgotten something important and were trying to remember what it was.

He knew that if he left them in this jungle, they would spend the rest of their days exactly where they were now.

No thoughts in their heads.

They'd never do anything again, let alone return home.

This plant was definitely poisoning his soldiers in a strange way.

The oleander is considered one of the most poisonous plants in the world.

It is a small shrub that can be found in temperate and subtropical areas.

I am so happy for you, Odysseus said to the man.

And thank you for taking care of my men.

And then to the nearest soldier, he said, could I speak to you over here for a second?

The The soldier got up with a grin on his face and strolled over to his captain.

As soon as they were out of sight of the others, Odysseus took the man by the hand and led him back through the forest towards the beach.

Hey, where are we going?

The man said.

To the beach, so we can go on a boat ride, Odysseus said.

The beach?

I love the beach, said the soldier.

But I'm not sure about the boat thing, you know?

Oh, it'll be great.

You'll love it.

Trust me, Odysseus said.

When Odysseus returned this man to the beach, he instructed his first mate to tie the lotus-eating soldier to a nearby bench.

He instructed the rest of his men to not go into the forest.

By now, the soldier was wailing about how much he wanted to go back and have more lotus flowers, and the rest of the crew were getting a little freaked out.

Odysseus marched back into the forest and returned to the lotus-eaters.

He just sat down among them and smiled at the fire casually.

Then, after a few moments, he spoke to another one of his soldiers, suggesting they go for a walk to look for more flowers.

As soon as the two were out of sight, Odysseus briskly grabbed the man and ran him back to the ship.

This man was tied to the bench next to his friend as the other soldiers made ready to put to sea.

There might have been a moment where Odysseus actually thought about leaving his last soldier with the Lotus Eaters.

It's not like they were hurting him.

But as a leader, he felt he had a responsibility to see his crew all home safely, and that is what he was going to do.

So Odysseus headed back to the Lotus Eaters a third time, but he told his crew to be ready.

He wanted as many people as possible on the boats before he got back.

This time, the Lotus Eaters were ready for Odysseus.

When he returned to their camp, they were standing by the fire, grouped protectively around his last remaining soldier.

All the men seemed scared and confused, sort of like small children.

The lotus eater who had spoken before stood defiantly in front of Odysseus with his hands behind his back.

I feel I must protect you from yourself, the man said.

If you would only taste of the lotus for just a moment, you would see things clearly.

Look at your friend here.

He is happy here.

He obviously does not want to leave.

Odysseus glanced quickly at his soldier.

And the instant he took his eyes off the lotus eater in front of him, the man moved with a swiftness that Odysseus didn't expect.

The old man produced a lotus plant from behind his back and proceeded to shove it into Odysseus' face.

In an instant, his eyes began to swim and his limbs began to feel heavy.

The lotus flower was working its magic, making him feel sleepy and strangely content.

But Odysseus also felt something that the others did not.

Anger.

Unlike the soldiers before him, Odysseus was prepared for this.

He was ready for a fight if necessary.

He staggered back from the man for a moment, then slapped the flower out of the man's hand and pushed him down.

With very little resistance from anyone else, Odysseus reached through the crowd and grabbed his crew member by the hand.

The two of them staggered out of the clearing and down the path, through the jungle, towards the beach.

Odysseus stumbled and dragged the sailor towards the ship, but the man resisted.

He was wailing and crying and trying to free himself from Odysseus' grip so he could just return to the jungle and the lotus flowers, man.

Fortunately, two other soldiers rushed to help and the three of them were able to subdue the man and drag him to the boats.

Odysseus and his men set to sea again and continued on their journey.

The sailors who had eaten the lotus flowers eventually fell asleep.

And when they awoke, they had only vague memories of the land of the lotus eaters.

Now remember, Odysseus has been telling this whole story to King Alcinius and Queen Arete and the rest of the Phaeacians, just like I'm telling it to you right now.

If you're finding it incredible, imagine how they felt hearing it from the man himself.

But that's all the time we have to tell this tale today.

Check back next week when the Odyssey continues on Greaking Out.

We hope you're enjoying our Odyssey series, which has three more episodes to go.

Thanks for listening.

Listen and you'll see it

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written by Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes and hosted by Kenny Curtis with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Dr.

Diane Klein is our subject matter expert and Emily Everhart is our producer.