Odyssey 9.98 · Book 9, lines 98–102
Dragged weeping to the ships
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τοὺς μὲν ἐγὼν ἐπὶ νῆας ἄγον κλαίοντας ἀνάγκῃ, νηυσὶ δʼ ἐνὶ γλαφυρῇσιν ὑπὸ ζυγὰ δῆσα ἐρύσσας. αὐτὰρ τοὺς ἄλλους κελόμην ἐρίηρας ἑταίρους σπερχομένους νηῶν ἐπιβαινέμεν ὠκειάων, μή πώς τις λωτοῖο φαγὼν νόστοιο λάθηται.
These, indeed, weeping, I brought by force to the ships, and, dragging them, bound them under the benches in the hollow ships. But the rest, my trusty companions, I ordered to embark in haste on the swift ships, lest anyone somehow, eating the lotus, should forget his homecoming.
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The setting
Odysseus must break the lotus's hold by force, hauling the drugged men back and getting the rest of the crew aboard before anyone else can taste the fruit.
A note on this passage
The rescue is not gentle. Odysseus drags the men back as they weep, ties them down beneath the rowing-benches, and orders everyone else aboard at speed, before the lotus can spread. Salvation here looks a great deal like abduction.
That they weep is the sting. They are being saved against their will, carried off from the one place they longed to stay. Odysseus's refusal to let his men choose forgetting is the same hard command that fills the rest of the book — the captain who decides, over their protest, what is good for them.
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