Loto'phagi

Loto'phagi (Gr., 'lotus-eaters'), a name applied by the ancients to a peaceful and hospitable people inhabiting a district of Cyrenaica, on the north coast of Africa, and much depending for their subsistence on the fruit of the lotus-tree, from which they also made wine. According to Homer, they received Ulysses hospitably, when, in the course of his wanderings, he visited them along with his companions, on whom, however, the sweetness of the lotus-fruit exercised such an influence that they forgot all about their native country, and had no desire to return home. This feeling of happy languor has been expressed with marvellous felicity by Tennyson in his poem 'The Lotus-eaters.'