And on his round limbs withered the skin that was fresh and fair,

  And she wasted the yellow locks on his head; and his every limb,

  The skin of an old man ancient she did it over him,

  And bleared his eyen moreover that were so bright erewhile,

  And she cast a foul clout on him, and a kirtle very vile,

  All tattered and torn, and sullied with the smoke of the feasting-hall,

  And a great bald skin of a stag swift-foot she cast o’er all,

  And a staff therewith she gave him, and a scrip, an unseemly thing,

  All tattered it was and foul, and slung by a twisted string.

  So after the Council they parted, and She her way sped on

  To Lacedaemon the holy to fetch Odysseus’ son.

  BOOK XIV.

  ARGUMENT.

  ODYSSEUS COMETH TO THE HOUSE OF EUM^EUS THE SWINEHERD IN

  THE SHAPE OF AN OLD STAFF-CARLE, AND IS KINDLY ENTERTAINED

  OF HIM: HE TELLETH EUMAEUS OF THE RETURN OF ODYSSEUS, BUT

  HATH NO CREDENCE OF HIM; THEREWITH HE TELLETH HIM A

  FEIGNED TALE OF HIMSELF: AND SO TO SUPPER AND BED IN THE

  HOUSE OF EUMJEUS.

  THEREWITH he went up from the haven along by the rocky way

  Of the fells and the woody places, whereby did Athene say

  He should find the noble swineherd, who heeded his goods and his gear

  Above all the thralls he had got him and all those of his house that were.

  So, sitting in the doorway of the garth the man he found,

  Where high aloft it was builded, well seen on a rising ground,

  Great, fair, with a clear space round it: but the swineherd’s very hand

  Had builded the wall for the swine of his master aloof from the land,

  And nought thereof his mistress or the old Laertes had known: [stone:

  With great dragged stones had he built it, and with thorns had coped the

  He had cleft the black of an oak-tree, and on every side all round

  Stout stakes set close together he had driven into the ground;

  And within the garth moreover twelve swine-styes had he done,

  Good swine-beds near to each other, and there in every one

  Were a fifty of earth-wallowers, the fruitful brood-sows, kept, [slept;

  But the boars of the herd, withoutward from those sow-swine styes they

  And fair fewer they were; for the Wooers, the god-great, evermore,

  Would minish them by eating, and the swineherd sent of the store

  The fattest and the likeliest of all the hog-kind there.

  Three hundreds to wit, and sixty, of these same beasts there were;

  And four hounds like wild beasts of the woodland beside them ever slept.

  Which the swineherd, leader of menfolk, for that cause nourished and

  [kept.

  Now he himself fair sandals to his feet was fitting as then,

  That were cut from a good sound oxhide, but as for the other men,

  There were three that this and that way with the pasturing swine were gone;

  But the fourth, perforce he had sent him his ways unto the town

  To take a swine to the Wooers, that they the lordly great

  Might hallow the beast, their souls with his flesh to satiate.

  But the baying dogs on a sudden of Odysseus now caught sight

  And ran upon him yelping; and he with practised sleight

  Straight sat him down on the earth, and dropped his staff from his hand,

  Yet ugly hurt had he suffered in this stead of his very land,

  But thereupon the swineherd, with swift feet following on,

  Straight gat him out through the entry and dropped the skin adown,

  And chid the hounds, and thencefrom drave them this way and that

  With plenteous stones cast quickly: and he spake to the King thereat:

  “Old man, it lacked but a little that the dogs had thee undone

  In sudden wise; and thereafter of thee a shame had I won.

  And forsooth of woe and wailing God giveth me enow,

  Since in grief for a godlike master do I abide in woe,

  While his fatted swine I nourish for other men to eat,

  And he belike sore craving for e’en a morsel of meat,

  Strays through the alien cities and the far folk many an one,

  If yet indeed he liveth and looketh on the sun.

  But come thou home to the booth, old man, that thou in the stead,

  Having quenched thine own heart’s longing for the meal of wine and bread,

  May’st tell us whence them comest and what woe them bearest withal.”

  So spake the goodly swineherd and led him home to the hall,

  And brought him and set him adown, and leaved twigs ‘neath him spread,

  And the skin of a shaggy wild-goat thereover, which he for a bed

  Did use for its hairy bigness; and glad was Odysseus at heart

  That suchwise he gave him guesting, and therewith spake on his part:

  “May Zeus and the other Deathless, O Stranger, give to thee

  All that which thou most desirest, since so kind thou takest me.”

  But therewith Eumreus the Swineherd, he answered him and said:

  “O guest, it were not rightful, though e’en worser than thou he were sped,

  To put shame upon a stranger; since guests and bedesmen all,

  From Zeus they are; and our giving, although it be but small,

  Is dear; for the wont ’tis of thrall-folk to be timorous day by day

  When young men are their masters and over them bear sway.

  Ah verily that man’s homefare the Gods perforce have stayed

  Who would have cherished me dearly, and given me gear to aid,

  An acre and an homestead, and a wife that many woo;

  Such gifts as a king beloved his man will give unto,

  Who hath toiled and earned good increase by the labour of his hand;

  As forsooth has this my toiling wherein I stoutly stand.

  Yea much had my king availed me, had he waxen old in his place.

  — He is gone; and would that Helen had gone with all her race!

  Since for many a man and many wrought she loosening of the knees,

  And for Agamemnon’s glory went this man across the seas,

  Unto Ilios rich in horses with the men of Troy to fight.”

  So saying, with a girdle he girt himself aright,

  And went unto the swine-styes where penned were the piglings’ crew,

  Whence he took and brought out twain, and both he hallowed and slew,

  And scalded, and sheared them piecemeal, and spitted all the meat,

  And roasted all and bore it, and set forth for Odysseus to eat,

  All hot from the very spits, with the barley white besprent

  And therewith in a cup of ivy heart-gladdening wine he blent,

  And sat down over against him, and bade to the meat and spake:

  “Eat now, O guest, of the piglings, which are for the thralls to take; So

  For of the hogs well fatted eat the Wooers day by day,

  With no thought in their hearts of the vengeance; nor any pity have they.

  Yet the happy Gods, they love not such headlong frowardness,

  But the righteous dooms of menfolk and their seemly deeds they bless.

  Yea the foemen of the aliens, when they fall upon the land,

  And Zeus to them is giving the prey unto their hand,

  And they fill their ships for departing that they may get them home, —

  ‘Mid the hearts of e’en these there falleth strong fear of the wrath to come.

  But somewhat these Wooers are wotting, or have heard some God maybe

  Tell of his piteous ending; so nowise righteously

  Will they woo, or get them homewards; but ever in peace they sit

  And eat up the wealth in their pride, and spare not any whit

  For as many as are the nights and the days that of Zeus are won

  No day but one beast do they hallow, nor ever but two alone:

  And his wine will they waste in their riot; in their mastery is it poured;

  For indeed was his treasure boundless, nor the like hath any lord

  Of the black fields of the mainland, nor yet in Ithaca here;

  Nay not twenty men together have such abundant gear.

  And to thee will I now be telling what wealth the man doth keep:

  He hath twelve herds on the mainland, and as many flocks of sheep,

  And of droves of swine as many, and of goat-flocks scattering wide,

  E’en such as strangers look to and his own house-carles beside,

  But here at the island’s outmost, wide-wandering goat-flocks feed,

  Eleven in all, and herdsmen of the best their pasture heed;

  And daily adown to the Wooers by each man thereof is sped

  Of the fatted goats whichever may seem the likeliest head.

  But watch and ward am I keeping o’er these same swine ye see,

  And ever I cull and send them the fattest that there be.”

  So he spake; but Odysseus in silence ate greedily and drank,

  While still in his heart for the Wooers the evil sprouted rank; no

  But when”he had supped and his soul with the meat was lustier grown,

  Kunuuus rilled and handed the cup that was his own,

  And he took it filled with the wine, and his heart rejoiced at the thing;

  And therewith he spake to the other, and set a word on the wing:

  “O friend, and what man was it with his chattels bought thee then,

  This man of whom thou tellest so rich amidst of men?

  And for Agamemnon’s glory as thou say’st his bane he got.

  Tell me, because it may be that of such a man I wot;

  Zeus knoweth alone and the others, the Gods that deathless abide.

  But I may have seen him to tell of, since I wander far and wide.”

  But the swineherd, the leader of folk, thuswise did he answer and say:

  “Old man, no wanderer’s story of the man shall now make way

  Unto the hope of his helpmate, or his well-beloved son:

  For wandering men, men needy of victuals, many an one,

  Would be lying hereof, nought wishful the very sooth to say;

  And every gangrel body that to Ithaca chanceth to stray,

  Unto the Queen he cometh, and a false tale telleth withal;

  And she taketh him in with all kindness, and searcheth into it all;

  And she mourneth, and down from her eyelids ever the tear-drops run,

  As women will do for a husband in far lands dead and gone.

  And thou too belike, old man, might fashion a tale indeed

  If any should give thee raiment, a coat and a cloak to thy need

  But the dogs, and the fowl swift-fleeting, this long while now have reft

  The skin from the bones of this man, and his soul the body hath left.

  Or the fish of the sea have devoured him, and his bones cast up aland,

  High up on the shore are lying rolled round in plenteous sand.

  There then he died, and thenceforward for his friends who are left behind

  Breeds sorrow, and chiefly for me; for nevermore shall I find

  Another so kindly a master, wherever I go or may come;

  Nay, not if I got me again to my father and mother and home,

  And the house wherein I was born, and the folk that cherished me.

  Nor so much for them do I sorrow, though fain were I to be

  Once more in the land of my fathers, and behold them with mine eyes,

  As I long for Odysseus departed; and anigh to my soul it lies.

  Yea, for awe I scarce may name him, O guest, though he be not here;

  For me in his heart he cherished, and held me lief and dear.

  My lord beworshipped I call him, though far away he be.”

  But the toil-stout goodly Odysseus in thiswise answered he:

  “Since utterly thou gainsayest, O friend, nor will have it so

  That ever the man shall come back, and thy soul no trust doth know,

  So now no longer I say it, but with an oath I swear

  That e’en now Odysseus cometh; so give me a guerdon dear

  For my tidings then when he cometh aback to his house and his hall,

  And do on me goodly raiment, a cloak and a kirtle withal.

  But ere then I would not take it for as needy as I be;

  For that man is no less loathsome than the Gates of Hell to me,

  Who ‘neath the pinch of lacking babbleth a lying word.

  Bear witness, Zeus the Arch-god, and this guest-loving board,

  And the hearth of the glorious Odysseus whereunto I have come,

  That all this that I have told of, the days shall bring it home.

  Hither shall come Odysseus ere yet this year be sped;

  Yea with this moon’s last waning, when the new moon stands in its stead,

  Then home shall he be gotten, and shall wreak him on each one

  Who now befouleth the honour of his wife and his noble son.”

  Then didst thou, O Swineherd Eumaeus, thereto make answer and say:

  “Old man, thy meed of good tidings God wot I shall never pay,

  Nor ever shall come Odysseus: so drink thy wine in peace

  And mind we other matters: mind we no more of these.

  For grieved is the heart within me nor merry is my mood

  When any man is telling of my trusty king and good.

  So now let the oath go by us — Yet might but Odysseus be,

  And home as my heart would have it and the heart of Penelope,

  And Laertes the Elder of days, and Telemachus godlike and fair!

  — Yet ah! for the child that Odysseus begot, in my sorrow I wear.

  For the Gods Telemachus nourished as a blossoming shoot of the earth,

  And I said to myself that midst men he should be no worser of worth

  Than erst was his father beloved, of body so marvellous made.

  But now some one of the Deathless his wit once evenly weighed

  Hath marred, or some one of menfolk: he hath gone some tidings to get

  Of his father to Pylos the Holy; and the masterful Wooers beset

  His homeward way with an ambush, that from Ithaca root and rod

  May the stock of Arceisius perish, and his name that was great as a God.

  Let-a-be! whether he be taken, or escape from these men may get!

  And may the Son of Cronos his hand hold over him yet!

  But now, old man, I bid thee of thine own trouble to tell;

  And give out all things soothly that I may know it well.

  Whence art thou then of menfolk? what thy city and thy kin? [win

  In what fashion of keel cam’st thou hither, by what way did the shipmen

  That unto Ithaca brought thee, and for what did they give themselves out?

  For that thou earnest not hither afoot I may not doubt.”

  So the many counselled Odysseus now fell to answer and say:

  “Yea, of all these things will I tell thee as straightly as I may:

  If now for a while were with us both meat and honey-sweet wine,

  And we in peace a-feasting within this booth of thine,

  While other men fall to it the deeds afield to do,

  Then lightly might I be telling my tale the whole year through,

  Nor yet an end be making of the story of the ill

  And the heart-grief laid upon me, worn through by God’s own will.

  “Of the kin do I declare me of the men of Crete the wide,

  The son of a man that was wealthy: but many sons beside

  Gotten in lawful wedlock in his house were born and bred,

  While a bought thrall was my mother and bore me all unwed.

  Yet e’en as his sons begotten in wedlock he honoured me,

  Castor, the son of Hylax, of whose blood I boast me to be.

  Amidst the folk of the Cretans as a God was he honoured by all

  For his happy wife and his riches, and his noble sons and tall:

  But the Fates of Death fell on him, and him away they bare

  Unto the House of Hades, and his sons straight fell to share

  His livelihood amongst them, and the lots thereover threw.

  But to me they gave but a little, and gave me a house thereto,

  And a wife I wedded befitting wide-landed men and high;

  And that because of my valour, for indeed no dastard was I,

  And no blencher from the battle — all now has departed and gone,

  And yet when ye look on the straw ye may deem of the harvest won;

  But sorrow in all plenty hath long encompassed my ways.

  Well; Ares and Athene gave me boldness in those days,

  And the might to break the battle, and when for the ambush I chose

  The best of the men, and was sowing great bale against the foes,

  Nought then my noble spirit forbode the death anear,

  But leaping out the foremost, I would smite down with the spear

  Such men of the foe as in swiftness of foot to me must yield.

  Such was I then in the battle: but I loved no work afield,

  Nor yet the thrift of the household that noble race doth rear;

  But the ships well dight with oars to me were ever dear,

  And shafts of war well shaven, and darts, and the battle-play;

  Things baleful, wherefrom others would shrink and shudder away.

  But these things God set in my soul, and to me were they goodly gain,

  For one man in this delighteth, and of that is another fain.

  “Now ere we sons of Achaeans went up to the Trojan land,

  Nine times the ships swift-faring, and the men I had in hand

  To lead ‘gainst the alien menfolk, and much good I happed on there;

  And thereof I took what liked me, and thereafter had my share

  By lot; and my house was holpen and waxed great there and then,

  And mighty I waxed and beworshipped amidst the Cretan men.

  But when to that way so loathly doomed us far-seeing Zeus

  Whereby the knees of a many and a many men grew loose,

  Men bade me and Idomeneus the noble and renowned

  To lead the ships unto Ilios, nor might a means be found

  Whereby we might gainsay it; for the folks’ voice pressed us hard

 

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