/percy-jacksons-visit-to-lotus-hotel-viewed-through-a-homeric-lens/

I’d never considered how much more intimate the sense of taste is than sight. To taste, one has to be up close and personal. The tempting object literally becomes part of one’s body. In the case of the Lotus Eaters, this raises the sinister question, “Who is eating whom?” It reminds me of the term sarcophagus, lithos sarkophagos, ‘flesh-eating stone,’ which marries the concepts of death, eating and tasting. Humans become the food of the earth. Their identity is lost through the act of consumption. This also ties into the discussions in 24 Hours about marriage as a form of ritual death, losing one’s identity when assuming a new role, two bodies becoming one.

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