on the shore by the retreating Greeks. Then he describes its
triumphant entry into Troy, where for the first time in ten years all
sleep soundly without dread of a surprise. But, while the too
confident Trojans are thus resting peacefully upon their laurels, the
Greeks, emerging from this wooden horse, open the gates to their
comrades, and the sack of Troy begins! Because the stranger guest
again shows great emotion, Alcinous begs him to relate his adventures
and asks whether he has lost some relative in the war of Troy?

Touch'd at the song, Ulysses straight resign'd
To soft affliction all his manly mind:
Before his eyes the purple vest he drew,
Industrious to conceal the falling dew:
But when the music paused, he ceased to shed
The flowing tear, and raised his drooping head:
And, lifting to the gods a goblet crown'd,
He pour'd a pure libation to the ground.

_Book IX._ Thus invited to speak, Ulysses, after introducing himself
and describing his island home, relates how, the ruin of Troy
completed, he and his men left the Trojan shores. Driven by winds to
Ismarus, they sacked the town, but, instead of sailing off immediately
with their booty as Ulysses urged, tarried there until surprised by
their foes, from whom they were glad to escape with their lives!
Tossed by a tempest for many days, the Greek ships next neared the
land of the Lotus-Eaters, people who feasted upon the buds and
blossoms of a narcotic lotus. Sending three men ashore to reconnoitre,
Ulysses vainly awaited their return; finally, mistrusting what had
happened, he went in quest of them himself, only to find that having
partaken of the lotus they were dead to the calls of home and