When Odysseus approached the home of the swineherd Eumaeus, he was at home alone and working, sitting at the entrance. The dogs saw Odysseus and rushed at him barking furiously. They would have torn Odysseus to pieces if Eumaeus had not come running and driven them away.
“Wanderer,” Eumaeus said to Odysseus, not recognizing him under the guise of a beggar, “you would have died, and a new sadness would have struck me, besides the sadness that torments me about the lost Odysseus.” But let’s go to my house, I’ll feed you and let you rest.
Odysseus went to the dwelling of Eumaeus, made of rough stone. In the yard, near the house, there were pig sheds. Eumaeus and Odysseus entered the house, and Eumaeus seated the wanderer on folded brushwood covered with chamois skin. Then he went to the barn where there were piglets, took two, slaughtered them and fried them. Eumaeus also poured the wine for the meal into a wooden goblet and put it all on the table. Eumaeus complained bitterly, while preparing the meal, about the violent suitors who were ruining the house of Odysseus worse than sea robbers and destroying his numerous herds. Odysseus listened attentively and pondered how to take revenge on the suitors. During the meal, Odysseus began to ask Eumaeus about his master, and when the swineherd said that his master had died, Odysseus swore that his master would return home, and that he would return soon. But Eumaeus did not believe his oath. Eumaeus asked the wanderer who he was. And Odysseus told him a fictitious story about his disasters.
He told him that his older brothers had offended him by cheating him when dividing their inheritance, that he had married a rich heiress, became rich himself, was near Troy, and having returned to his homeland, went to Egypt. He told how the Egyptians killed almost all of his companions because they plundered their city. But he saved himself by begging the king of Egypt to spare him. He allegedly spent seven years in Egypt, and from there he crossed over to Phenicia. One Phoenician persuaded him to go to Libya. He went with him, but Zeus crashed their ship with his lightning. He alone was saved; a wave threw him onto the shore of the country of the Thesprots. On this island, the king of the Thesprotians allegedly told him that Odysseus was returning to his homeland with rich gifts. Finally, he set off on a Thesprotian ship to Dulichium. But the Thesprots decided to sell him into slavery; Only with great difficulty did he escape from them at the time when they landed on the shore of Ithaca. He believed the entire fictitious story of Eumaeus, but did not believe only what the wanderer heard about Odysseus from the king of the Thesprotians. Eumaeus reproached the wanderer that he was telling this about Odysseus in order to receive a reward from his loved ones here in Ithaca. But Odysseus said to him:
“Listen, Eumaeus, if Odysseus returns, then promise to give me new clothes, but if I deceived you, then throw me, calling the shepherds, from the top of the cliff into the sea, so that various vagabonds will not dare to invent fables in the future.”
Soon the shepherds returned with their flock. They slaughtered a fat pig and sat down to dinner. During dinner, Eumaeus honored the wanderer with the best piece and was the first to serve him a cup of wine, as if he were a guest.
When they were all quietly having dinner, a strong storm with rain arose outside. It became cold. Odysseus did not even have a cloak to cover himself while sleeping. Then he told Eumaeus and the shepherds such a story that, having understood the hint, they gave him a cloak.
“Listen, Eumaeus, listen too,” Odysseus began. “One day, near Troy, Menelaus, Odysseus and I lay in ambush. It was cold at night in the reeds, the snow was falling in large flakes, but I forgot to take my raincoat; Finally, I told Odysseus about this. He immediately came up with a trick. Getting up, he woke up the soldiers lying nearby and said that he had had a bad dream, and therefore was afraid that they had moved so far from the ships; someone needs to be sent to Agamemnon for reinforcements. One of the warriors immediately stood up, threw off his cloak and went to the ships. I picked up my cloak, covered myself with it and slept peacefully until dawn.
Eumaeus understood the hint. He prepared a bed for Odysseus by the fireplace, laid out sheepskin and goatskin, and gave Odysseus to cover himself with his cloak, which he wore in winter. Odysseus fell asleep sweetly. Eumaeus himself did not stay at home. Hanging a sword over his shoulder, taking a spear in his hands and covering himself with a cloak, he went to the herd that was grazing at the foot of the cliff.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru