Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Athena having disguised Odysseus as an old beggar, he came to the steading of Eumaeus, keeper of his swine. Dogs would have torn him but for the swineherd’s shout. Eumaeus led the stranger in, strewed brush and a goatskin for a seat, and spoke bitterly of his absent master’s fate and the suitors’ waste of the herds. He slaughtered a fat hog for the guest, roasted portions, set meat and wine before him, and honored the stranger with the chine—good xenia though he thought Odysseus dead or lost. Odysseus tested him with a Cretan lying tale and a prophecy of the master’s return; Eumaeus doubted the prophecy but would not thrust the guest out. At night he made a bed under the shelter’s porch and lent a thick cloak; Odysseus told a further yarn of an ambush at Troy to wheedle that cloak. The swineherd slept outside among the boars, loyal and armed. The book establishes Eumaeus as the moral opposite of the wasteful palace: piety, hospitality, and steadfast love of Odysseus before any recognition.