LOTUS, a popular name applied to several plants. The lotus fruits of the Greeks belonged to Ziziphus Lotus, a bush native in south Europe with fruits as large as sloes, containing a mealy substance which can be used for making bread and also a fer mented drink. In ancient times the fruits were an important article of food among the poor; whence "lotophagi" or lotus-eaters. Ziziphus is a member of the family Rhamnaceae to which belongs the buckthorn. The Egyptian lotus was a water-lily, Nymphaea Lotus; as also is the sacred lotus of the Hindus, Nelumbium speciosum, and the American lotus, N. luteum. The lotus tree, known to the Romans as the Libyan lotus, and planted by them for shade, was probably Celtis australis, the nettle-tree (q.v.), a southern European tree, a native of the elm family, with fruits like small cherries, which are first red and then black. Lotus of botan ists is a genus of the pea family (Leguminosae), containing a large number of species of herbs and undershrubs widely distributed in the temperate regions of the old world. It is represented in Britain by L. corniculatus, bird's foot trefoil, a low-growing herb, common in pastures and waste places, with clusters of small bright yellow pea-like flowers, which are often streaked with crimson; the popular name is derived from the pods which when ripe spread like the toes of a bird's foot. (X.) In decoration, the lotus, through gradual conventionalization, became one of the most prolific ornamental forms. Its universal use in Egypt resulted from its symbolic association with the Nile, the giver of life. The flower itself is represented as a common votive offering and is frequently painted as though tied on to shrines or house pillars. The conventionalized form is not only the origin of the lotus bud capital, and the late lotus flower capital, but also serves in various ways as a basis for borders and all over patterns. Two conventionalized varieties, the tri-lobe or three-leaved lotus, and the lotus palmette (in which the flower is combined with a semi-circle or semi-ellipse of radiating petals above it), were largely used by the Assyrians and all the peoples along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Thus the lotus is
at the basis of such varying forms as the Assyrian sacred tree, and those Phoenician stele capitals which were the parents of the Ionic order. Lotus flower bud and palmette forms are also the origin of a great number of Greek, painted ceramic patterns and from them evolved into the egg and dart (q.v.) and the anthemion (q.v.). The Romans not only borrowed and modified these Greek lotus derivatives, but also received further lotus forms from Etruscan art. Lotus derivatives, like many other Roman decorative motives, appear in modified form throughout Byzan tine and Romanesque art. Lotus forms or derivatives are common even in the loth century; thus their influence can be traced con tinuously back from modern times, through the Renaissance, me diaeval, Roman, Greek and western Asiatic work to its source in Egypt at least 5,000 years ago. For a complete, though not entirely sound discussion, see W. H. Goodyear, Grammar of the Lotus.
(T. F. H.) a people encountered by Odysseus (q.v.) (Gr. Acorochayot.); they lived on a plant called lotos, which they offered to his men ; those who ate of it forgot home and friends and wanted only to remain there and eat of that food (Homer, Od. ix., 82 ff.). It should be plain enough that the Lotus-Eaters and their country are situated in fairy-land ; but, besides alle gorical interpretations, many ancient scholars amused themselves by trying to identify them with some people of Northern Africa, since that continent produces one or two edible plants called Xcoras by the Greeks. This foolishness has been imitated by some moderns. The phrase "to eat lotus" is used metaphorically by numerous ancient writers to mean "to forget, to be unmindful." See Roscher's Lexikon, art. "Lotophagen."