We appear to be like flowers, bearing
seed, hubris and qualia. Our "lotus" of today
include our fantasies on what it is and means
to be H. sapiens. Modern use of legal and
illegal drugs, and the modern easy life style
(grocery stores, electric power) fit in here.
My discussions with turtoni on flowers
prompted this :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_eaters

In Greek mythology, the Lotophagi (Greek ??t?f????, lotus-eaters) were a race of people from an island near North Africa dominated
by "lotus" plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic and addictive, causing the
people to sleep in peaceful apathy.

The relevant part from the Odyssey (Book IX, translated by Samuel Butler):

"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of nine days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the
Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed...

On Mar 6, 9:45 pm, Sir Frederick fuzzysys.com> wrote:

The Minoans left us a goddess with a tiera decorated with opium pods.
They also left frescos of women in the fields picking the stamens of
Crocus Sativa, which is the same flower on the wall behind the throne
at Knossus. The saffron was powerful; 300mg for a psychedelic trip,
700 for an abortion, 1gram for a one way ticket to the next world. The
priestesses dyed their robes in saffron. (where have we seen that?)

They also left us decorative icons of the Lotus which are no different
than those created by later cultures. One other clue is an image of a
boy with a fetlock on the side of his otherwise shaved head, which is
still seen in Buddhist boy monks. 17th century BC.

Curious also is the "meditation hall" at Knossus. It has *fractals* on
the walls. I awta post it, but the throne can be seen at:
http://daybrown.org/artifax/artifax.html its the 10th image down.

The 7000 year old dude with the grain sickle on his shoulder is
spooky. We all know about shamen wearing animal masks. This dude is
wearing the mask of the most powerful animal they know of. He's a man
wearing the mask of a man.