The Lotos-Eaters Death Quotes

In these lines, death seems not only natural, but kind of relaxing. When a flower dies ("falls") it's not some kind of big tragedy. It's just the calm, regular order of things. It didn't have to work while it was alive, and dying is no trouble either. It just kind of happens. The guys speaking these words would really like to be like that flower—living, growing, and dying with no pain or effort at all.

The basic idea here is that, if you're going to die anyway, why should you bust your hump while you're alive? What's the point of constant work, if we all end up in the same place? There's definitely a certain logic to this—we can see where they're coming from. On the other hand, when people are feeling healthy and happy, they mostly manage to forget this basic fact, or at least not focus on it. In the land of the Lotos-eaters, though, the perspective of the sailors is a little out of whack.

Weirdly, sleep and death have turned into kind of the same thing for the sailors. Sure, being dead and being asleep are similar in some ways, but the difference is also pretty clear. In this case, though, the separation has kind of blurred. All these men care about it not having to work, and being able to lie around all day. Asleep or dead—it doesn't matter to them.