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[94] This λωτός is not to be confounded with the grass of that name, Il.2. 775; Od.4. 602; Il.14. 348. Hdt.4. 177 describes the Lotus as follows, “ὁ δὲ τοῦ λωτοῦ καρπός ἐστι μέγαθος ὅσον τε τῆς σχίνου ῾μαστιξ-βερρψ̓, γλυκύτητα δὲ τοῦ φοίνικος τῷ καρπῷ ῾τηε δατἐ προσείκελος: ποιεῦνται δὲ ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ τούτου οἱ Λωτοφάγοι καὶ οἶνον”. With “γλυκύτητα” we may compare the expression μελιηδέα καρπόν here. Modern travellers state that the fruit is used at the present day for food, on the north coast of Africa and far inland, and in these parts it is called Jujuba. Polybius gives a further description of the shrub (12. 2. ed. Bekk.), “ἔστι δὲ τὸ δένδρον οὐ μέγα, τραχύ, ἀκανθῶδες, ἔχει δὲ φύλλον χλωρόν, παραπλήσιον τῷ ῥάμνῳ, μικρῷ βαθύτερον καὶ πλατύτερον. ὁ δὲ καρπὸς τὰς μὲν ἀρχὰς ὅμοιός ἐστι τῇ τε χρόᾳ καὶ τῷ μεγέθει ταῖς λευκαῖς μυρτίσι ταῖς τετελειωμέναις. αὐξανόμενος δὲ τῷ μὲν χρώματι γίγνεται φοινικοῦς, τῷ δὲ μεγέθει ταῖς γογγύλαις ἐλαίαις παραπλήσιος. πυρῆνα δ᾽ ἔχει τελέως μικρόν . . ἔστι δὲ τὸ βρῶμα παραπλήσιον σύκῳ καὶ φοινικοβαλάνῳ, τῇ δ᾽ εὐωδίᾳ βέλτιον”. Theophrastus, Plant. Hist. 4. 3, distinguishes the Cyrenaic Lotus from that used by the Lotophagi; the latter was “γλυκύς, ἡδὺς καὶ ἀσινής”, and grew in such abundance in those parts, that the army of Ophellas on its march to Carthage subsisted on Lotus alone for some days. Mungo Park mentions the existence of a tree in the interior of Africa, the fruit of which was called by the negroes Tomberug, which they dried, pounded, and made into sweet cakes. Miquel (Hom. Flor. 19) seeks to identify the Lotus of Homer with the dudaim (‘mandrakes’ in Eng. vers.) which Reuben brought to his mother Leah, Gen. 30. 14.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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