The overthrow of the temples at Troy was heavily visited on the Greeks by the gods, and the disasters that befel Ulysses are the subject of another grand Greek poem called the _Odyssey_, from his right Greek name Odysseus.  He was the special favourite of Pallas Athene, but she could not save him from many dangers.  He had twelve ships, with which he set out to return to Ithaca; but as he was doubling Cape Malea, one of the rugged points of the Peloponnesus, a great storm caught him, and drove him nine days westward, till he came to an island, where he sent three men to explore, but they did not return, and he found that this was the land of the lotus-eaters, a people who always lie about in a dreamy state of repose, and that to taste the food drives away all remembrance of home and friends.  He was obliged to drag his men away by force, and bind them to the benches.  The lotus bean, or jujube, is really eaten in Africa, but not with these effects.