This song, “Lotus Eater”, by the band Foster the People, draws inspiration from The Odyssey to discuss the dangers of pleasing oneself with unimportant things. The song was very recently released in 2017. It is crucial to realize the long-standing impact that The Odyssey and its characters and events have had across multiple sources of media. Artists and everyday people alike take The Odyssey and its lessons and apply the values to their art and everyday life in a variety of ways. The modern forms of media also present an opportunity to hear or see the perspectives of characters who are not highlighted as much in The Odyssey. “Lotus Eater” by Foster the People is a terrific example of this. The band draws inspiration from the Lotus Eaters of Book IX of The Odyssey in order to deliver their message about the dangers of drug addiction.

In “Lotus Eater”, the only direct reference to The Odyssey is only the title itself – yet when closely listened to, the theme of the song obviously relate and connect to the literary masterpiece. The song follows a shallow relationship. To open, the lyrics criticize a woman who the narrator presumably meets at some sort of social gathering. As the song goes on, we hear the narrator describe how he is not searching for any type of emotional connection, just a fun time. Later, the narrator criticizes his own feelings, and realizes the purely physical, absent of emotion, relationships are a dangerous drug – much like the lotus plant the Lotus Eaters eat in The Odyssey. To summarize, the narrator is a former ‘Lotus Eater’ who broke free of the grasp of the Lotus. This perspective raises an interesting conversation on the lack of substance in today’s world. It often seems as if in todays society, people, especially the younger generations seek joy from shallow, unconnected relationships, rather than the better, emotional connections. These shallow relationships are a metaphor for the Lotus plant from The Odyssey, and vice versa. It is hard to realize that you are addicted to something useless until you break free, however, just as the narrator of “Lotus Eater” does. This raises a question as to how Odysseus’ scout team that was under the influence of the Lotus plant felt after its effects had worn off. Did they regret their lack of motivation while on the drug? Or did they miss the blissful feeling of having not a worry in the world? These questions are unanswered within the literature, but it is up to us as the audience to make our own assumptions based off our own experiences.

As stated earlier, it is extremely important to look at modern pieces of media in connection to The Odyssey. This comparative approach allows us to fully appreciate the massive impact the themes of The Odyssey has had across thousands of years. This allows us to relate more closely to literary piece as we can more closely relate to the themes when we see them applied to scenarios that we have experienced firsthand.