Based on Homer's 'Odyssey,' the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, deals with the picaresque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s, Mississippi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett's home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist, they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them are the Sirens, a Cyclops, bank robber George 'Baby face' Nelson, a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that treasure they seek shall not be the treasure they find, and foretells a few events, such as the "cow atop a hen house". Homer's epic poem the 'Odyssey' tells of a similar story; the poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope with son, Telemachus, must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteresors, who are all competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. Many of the characters/scenes from the Odyssey and the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, correspond to each other with many similarities; yet, many of these characters have differences. Three specific characters are shown as parallels from The Odyssey: The Lotus Eaters, Odysseus' men, and the Sirens.
In "O Brother Where Art Thou", the Baptism people are parallel, or resemble, the Lotus Eaters from the 'Odyssey'. In the movie, Everett, Pete, and Delmar are in the forest, enjoying roasted gopher, when a large crowd of singing, white-dressed, people come walking passed them, down to the river. The trio, amidst all confusion, and trance, follow these people down to the river to a religious baptism. As in the poem, Everett's men: Pete and Delmar, become "hypnotized" by these people, and get baptized as well.
