140 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



describe it as the produce of a shrub. The lotos of Homer, however, 

 is distinct from that of ancient India and Egypt, and it is slightly 

 probable that, when Homer sang, it was known in Greece only by 

 name. It could not have been the Egyptian water-lily which formed 

 the bed of Jupiter and Juno, according to Homer ; nor could the 

 horses of Achilles have regaled themselves upon its herbage. It 

 could not have been any species of nymphaea which so enchanted the 

 companions of Ulysses when they landed on 



" The land of lotos and the flowery coast;" 



For, in describing the resources of the inhabitants of this region, the 

 poet says, 



"The trees around them all their fruit produce, 

 Lotos the name, divine, nectareous juice." * 



Ovid makes the same mistake, or rather, adopts an error which had 

 become very prevalent in his day ; for, in his elegant fable of Dryope, 

 he derives the name of the lotos from the nymph who escapes from the 

 lawless lust of Priapus : — 



" Not distant far a watery lotos grows ; 

 The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs 

 Adorned with blossoms, promised fruits that vie 

 In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye. 



****** 



Upon the tree I cast a frightful look, 



The trembling tree with sudden horror shook. 



Lotos the nymph (if rural tales be true), 



As from Priapus' lawless lust she flew, 



Forsook her form ; and fixing there, became 



A flowery plant, which still preserves her name." t 



There Ovid describes the lotos as a tree with "verdant boughs;" 

 and Theophrastus, in his fourth book, makes reference to it in similar 



* Pope is inclined to believe that it is this kind of lotos which the companions 

 of Ulysses tasted, and which was the reason why they were overcome with it ; 

 for, being a wine, it intoxicated them. 



+ Lotis, or lotus, a beautiful nymph, daughter of Neptune. Dryope, a virgin, 

 .^chalia, beloved by Apollo, and afterwards married to Andraemon, was said to 

 have been changed into a lotos. 



