In the Lotus Eaters, written in The Odyssey by Homer, the author uses tone to describe how long and arduous Odysseus’s journey was. Homer uses certain words to show how fearful Odysseus if for his men. The author also uses tone to show how hopeless the voyage is. Fear is also commonly portrayed through the author’s word usage. The author uses certain words to describe how lengthy and difficult Odysseus’s journey was by showing Odysseus’s fear, hopelessness, and the deaths of his men.

Fear is a commonly portrayed when Odysseus fears for his men’s will to go home. Fear is shown when Odysseus and his crew are sailing through a storm. Here, Homer describes the bitter storm that instills fear into Odysseus and his crew of never getting back to their home of Ithaca due to dying in the storm.

 We saw death in that fury, dropped the yards,

unshipped the oars, and pulled for the nearest lee:

then two long days and nights we lay offshore

worn out and sick at heart, tasting our grief. (Homer, 864)

However, through courage, they are able to prevail and escape the storm, to land on the island of the Lotus Eater, to be faced with a new conflict. Grief is keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret. This is shown when Odysseus and his men see ‘death’ in the storm, showing fear and grief. Death is the act of permanent ending of all life in a person, animal or plant, which is what the group fears when they enter the storm. The cause of this happening would be Zeus, Father of Gods, when he causes a giant storm around Odysseus and his men. Through this, he was able to instill fear within Odysseus and his crew. The effect, Odysseus and his men are set off course, but make it out alive to be faced with a new problem, the Lotus Eaters.

Homer uses words to describe how hopeless the journey back to Ithaca seems. Hopelessness is shown evident in the story when they are constantly going through storms and it seems like there is no end to the horrible weather.  Odysseus is describing what it was like going through the rough weather and what a toll it took on his men.

                        Then two long days and nights we lay offshore