nothing
lotus flowers to eat
Oddyseus' crew starved on the island of lotus eaters, some crew were tempted to eat. Oddyseus made a decision to leave the island at once.
Crew members whipped the Africans if the did not eat.
They stay forever.
If his crew eat the Lotus, they will lose all desire to return home. Odysseus needs the men to return home himself, and he is responsible for these men.
He carried each men back to the ship and told his crew to tie them down and to not eat the Lotus.
The native lotus eaters happily gave some of the lotus to the three of Odysseus crew who were sent to explore the island. The natives are peaceful and do not attack Odysseus and his crew. They are eventually left behind on the island. The three members of Odysseus men who eat the lotus fall under the lotus' power, forgetting themselves and their home, and have to be dragged back to the ship against their will.
they ate food
Treat them bad
They are peaceful people who eat lotus, and offer other people lotus to eat.
The lotus makes those who eat it lose their desire to return home, trapping them in a state of blissful forgetfulness. This poses a threat to Odysseus' mission to return to Ithaca, as his crew might be tempted to stay on the island and abandon their journey.
The lotus that the lotus-eaters ate contained a type of drug. This made the three crew men who ate the lotus very contented, and forgetful of their home land. All three of them wanted to stay and eat lotus forever, and thus had to be dragged back to the ship by Odysseus. Odysseus saved them and they left; they didn't live there forever. Metaphorically, the lotus represents a type of temptation to live the easy life and give up on the journey.