The Lotos-Eaters The Home Quotes

These travelers have been gone a super-long time. In these lines they imagine that their sons will have taken their place, and that the people they knew won't even recognize them. If they came home now, they figure, they'd just seem like ghosts from the past. Even now, this is a pretty familiar idea for soldiers far from home. What if no one remembers me when I get back? What if everyone has just moved on while I'm gone?

For these guys, the possibility that things have changed at home turns into an excuse to not even try to go home. Why even bother? If the world they knew is "broken," then they figure it's best to just leave it that way. We think this is probably just the Lotos plant talking—these guys are feeling so lazy and sleepy now that they'll think of any excuse not to do the hard work of getting home.