The classic 1980 Rush song that channels ‘The Odyssey’: “The cards were stacked against them”If you’re in need of some artistic inspiration, a reach into Homer’s 8th-century BC epic, The Odyssey, is as good a place as any to stir those creative juices, whether you’re the world’s biggest Canadian power-trio or otherwise. During his lengthy absence, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus have to deal with the many suitors eager to claim the throne. With a love of mythos and the literary canon, prog rock heavyweights Rush made sure to smatter 1980’s ‘Freewill’ with some Homeric nods on their exploration of unwavering self-determinism. Amid such ardent self-determination, Peart drops the curious line: “The cards were stacked against them / They weren’t born in Lotus land.” In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men sail to a strange island populated by the ‘lotus eaters’, a community of people seemingly stuck in a stasis of passive apathy due to the lotuses’ opiate properties when consumed.