ne man among them, who, though not guiltless by any
means, felt the nature of the Ciconian act, and who has still some
volition left in the right direction. "By force I led back to the ship
those who had tasted of the lotus, and bound them beneath the
oar-benches." The rest of the companions were ordered aboard, they
obeyed; off they sail again on the hoary deep--whitherward? Thus
Ulysses shows himself the man of will among the will-less, and solves
his part of the problem among the Lotus-eaters, setting out for the new
Unknown.

This people probably lived on the coast of Lybia according to Homer's
conception, though the land is outside the clear Greek geographical
horizon, floating mistily somewhere on its borders, half real, half
fabulous, on the way to Fairyland. We enter more distinctly the inner
realm of the spirit, as the outer realm of reality becomes less
distinct and demonstrable. The Ciconians were an actual people, the
conflict with them also actual, quite the Trojan conflict; but the
Lotus-eaters form the transition to the Wonderland of the Odyssey.

As regards the lotus, several plants were called by that name; one is
mentioned in a previous Book of the Odyssey (IV. 603) which was
probably a kind of clover growing in the damp lowlands of Greece and
Asia Minor, and utilized for grazing. Another sort was a species of
lily which grew in the valley of the Nile. But the lotus of the present
passage is generally considered to be the fruit of a shrub which yields
a reddish berry of the size of a common olive, having somewhat the
taste of a fig. This fruit is still highly esteemed in Tripolis, Tunis
and Algiers; from the last named country it has passed over to France,
and is often hawked about the streets of Paris under the name of
_Jujube_, where the passing traveler will purchase a sample, and eat of
the same, testing the truth of Homer's description, but probably not
losing thereby his desire for home and country.

The Lotus-eaters have had a famous history; they have caught the fancy
of poets and literary men who have sought in various ways to reproduce
and embellish them. Among English-speaking peoples the poem of Tennyson
on this subject is a prime favorite. But in Homer the Lotus-eaters are
not an isolated fact, they are a link in the chain of a grand
development; this inner connecting thought is the true thing to grasp.

Let us, then, penetrate the heart of the next movement of Ulysses. The
Lotus-eater