[3]
And he landed in the country of the
Lotus-eaters,1 and sent some
to learn who inhabited it, but they tasted of the lotus and remained there; for there grew
in the country a sweet fruit called lotus, which caused him who tasted it to forget
everything. When Ulysses was informed of this, he restrained the rest of his men, and
dragged those who had tasted the lotus by force to the ships. And having sailed to the
land of the Cyclopes, he stood in for the shore.
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1 As to the adventures of Ulysses with the Lotus-eaters, see Hom. Od. 9.82-104; Hyginus, Fab. 125. The Lotus-eaters were a tribe of northern Africa, inhabiting the coast of Tripolis （Scylax, Periplus 110; Pliny, Nat. Hist. v.28）. As to the lotus, see Hdt. 4.177; Polybius xii.2.1, quoted by Athenaeus xiv.65, p. 651 DF; Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. iv.3.1ff. The tree is the Zizyphus Lotus of the botanists. Theophrastus says that the tree was common in Libya, that is, in northern Africa, and that an army marching on Carthage subsisted on its fruit alone for several days. The modern name of the tree is ssodr or ssidr. A whole district in Tripolis is named Ssodria after it. See A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch, p. 385, note on Herodotus, ii.96.
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
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