Read this excerpt from "The Odyssey"

Banqueters up and down the palace sit in ranks

enthralled to hear the bard and before them all the

tables heaped with bread and meats

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far andwide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many citiesdid he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners andcustoms he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by seawhile trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for theyperished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle ofthe Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from everreaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.