So he took Ulysses into the house and made a seat for him with a pile of brushwood boughs and a great thick shaggy goat-skin which he used for his own bed, and all with so kind a welcome that it warmed the king’s heart and made him pray the Gods to bless him for his goodness.  But Eumaeus only said, “How could I neglect a stranger, though he were a worse man than you?  All strangers and beggars are sent to us by Zeus.  Take my gift and welcome, though it is little enough I have to give, a servant such as I, with new masters to lord it over him.  For we have lost the king who would have loved me and given me house and lands and all that a faithful servant ought to have, whose work is blest by the Gods and prospers, as mine does here.  Alas! he is dead and gone! he went away with Agamemnon to fight at Troy and never came home again.”

So saying, the good swineherd rose and fetched what meat and wine he had, and set it before Ulysses, grieving that he had nothing better for him because the shameless suitors plundered everything.

But Ulysses ate and drank eagerly, and when his strength had come again he asked Eumaeus, “My friend, who is this master of yours you tell me of?  Did you not say he was lost for Agamemnon’s sake?  Perhaps I may have seen him, for I have traveled far.”

But the swineherd answered, “Old man, his wife and son will believe no traveler’s tale.  They have heard too many such.  Every wandering beggar who comes to Ithaca goes to my mistress with some empty story to get a meal for himself, and she welcomes him and treats him kindly and asks him about it all, with the tears running down her cheeks in a woman’s way.  Yes, even you, old man, might learn to weave such tales if you thought they would get you a cloak or a vest.  No, he is dead, and dogs and birds have eaten him, or else he has fed the fishes and his bones lie somewhere on the seashore, buried in the sand.  And he has left us all to grieve for him, but no one more than me, who can never have so kind a master again, not though I had my heart’s desire and went back to my native land and saw my father and mother, and the dear home where I was born.  It is Ulysses above all whom I long to see once more.  There, stranger, I have called him by his name, and that I should not do; for he is still my dear master though he is far away.”

Then Ulysses said, “My friend, your hope has gone and you will never believe me.  But I tell you this and seal it with an oath:  Ulysses will return!  Poor as I am, I will take no reward for my news till he comes to his own again, but you shall give me a new vest and cloak that day, and I will wear them.”

But the swineherd answered, “Ah, my friend, I shall never need to pay you that reward.  He will never come back again.  But now drink your wine in peace, and let us talk of something else, and do not call to mind the sorrow that almost breaks my heart.  Tell me of yourself and your own troubles and who you are, and what ship brought you here, for you will not say you came afoot.”