Odysseus now left the haven, and
took the rough track up through the wooded country and over the crest
of the mountain till he reached the place where Athena had said that
he would find the swineherd, who was the most thrifty servant he had.
He found him sitting in front of his hut, which was by the yards that
he had built on a site which could be seen from far. He had made them
spacious and fair to see, with a free ran for the pigs all round
them; he had built them during his master's absence, of stones
which he had gathered out of the ground, without saying anything to
Penelope or Laertes, and he had fenced them on top with thorn bushes.
Outside the yard he had run a strong fence of oaken posts, split, and
set pretty close together, while inside lie had built twelve sties
near one another for the sows to lie in. There were fifty pigs
wallowing in each sty, all of them breeding sows; but the boars slept
outside and were much fewer in number, for the suitors kept on eating
them, and the swineherd had to send them the best he had continually.
There were three hundred and sixty boar pigs, and the herdsman's
four hounds, which were as fierce as wolves, slept always with them.
The swineherd was at that moment cutting out a pair of sandals from a
good stout ox hide. Three of his men were out herding the pigs in one
place or another, and he had sent the fourth to town with a boar that
he had been forced to send the suitors that they might sacrifice it
and have their fill of meat.
When the hounds saw Odysseus they
set up a furious barking and flew at him, but Odysseus was cunning
enough to sit down and loose his hold of the stick that he had in his
hand: still, he would have been torn by them in his own homestead had
not the swineherd dropped his ox hide, rushed full speed through the
gate of the yard and driven the dogs off by shouting and throwing
stones at them. Then he said to Odysseus, "Old man, the dogs were
likely to have made short work of you, and then you would have got me
into trouble. The gods have given me quite enough worries without
that, for I have lost the best of masters, and am in continual grief
on his account. I have to attend swine for other people to eat, while
he, if he yet lives to see the light of day, is starving in some
distant dêmos. But come inside, and when you have had
your fill of bread and wine, tell me where you come from, and all
about your misfortunes."
On this the swineherd led the way
into the hut and bade him sit down. He strewed a good thick bed of
rushes upon the floor, and on the top of this he threw the shaggy
chamois skin - a great thick one - on which he used to sleep by
night. Odysseus was pleased at being made thus welcome, and said "May
Zeus, sir, and the rest of the gods grant you your heart's
desire in return for the kind way in which you have received
me."
To this you answered, O swineherd
Eumaios, "Stranger, though a still poorer man should come here, it
would not be right for me to insult him, for all strangers and
beggars are from Zeus. You must take what you can get and be
thankful, for servants live in fear when they have young lords for
their masters; and this is my misfortune now, for heaven has hindered
the return [nostos] of him who would have been always
good to me and given me something of my own - a house, a piece of
land, a good looking wife, and all else that a liberal master allows
a servant who has worked hard for him, and whose labor the gods have
prospered as they have mine in the situation which I hold. If my
master had grown old here he would have done great things by me, but
he is gone, and I wish that Helen's whole race were utterly
destroyed, for she has been the death of many a good man. It was this
matter that took my master to Ilion, the land of noble steeds, to
fight the Trojans in the cause of king Agamemnon."
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