’Eat now, stranger, such fare as thralls have to hand, even flesh of sucking pigs; but the fatted hogs the wooers devour, for they know not the wrath of the gods nor any pity.  Verily the blessed gods love not froward deeds, but they reverence justice and the righteous acts of men.  Yet even foes and men unfriendly, that land on a strange coast, and Zeus grants them a prey, and they have laden their ships and depart for home; yea, even on their hearts falls strong fear of the wrath of the gods.  But lo you, these men know somewhat,—­for they have heard an utterance of a god —­, even the tidings of our lord’s evil end, seeing that they are not minded justly to woo, nor to go back to their own, but at ease they devour our wealth with insolence, and now there is no sparing.  For every day and every night that comes from Zeus, they make sacrifice not of one victim only, nor of two, and wine they draw and waste it riotously.  For surely his livelihood was great past telling, no lord in the dark mainland had so much, nor any in Ithaca itself; nay, not twenty men together have wealth so great, and I will tell thee the sum thereof.  Twelve herds of kine upon the mainland, as many flocks of sheep, as many droves of swine, as many ranging herds of goats, that his own shepherds and strangers pasture.  And ranging herds of goats, eleven in all, graze here by the extremity of the island with trusty men to watch them.  And day by day each man of these ever drives one of the flock to the wooers, whichsoever seems the best of the fatted goats.  But as for me I guard and keep these swine and I choose out for them, as well as I may, the best of the swine and send it hence.’

So spake he, but Odysseus ceased not to eat flesh and drink wine right eagerly and in silence, and the while was sowing the seeds of evil for the wooers.  Now when he had well eaten and comforted his heart with food, then the herdsman filled him the bowl out of which he was wont himself to drink, and he gave it him brimming with wine, and he took it and was glad at heart, and uttering his voice spake to him winged words: 

’My friend, who was it then that bought thee with his wealth, a man so exceedingly rich and mighty as thou declarest?  Thou saidest that he perished to get atonement for Agamemnon; tell me, if perchance I may know him, being such an one as thou sayest.  For Zeus, methinks, and the other deathless gods know whether I may bring tidings of having seen him; for I have wandered far.’

Then the swineherd, a master of men, answered him:  ’Old man, no wanderer who may come hither and bring tidings of him can win the ear of his wife and his dear son; but lightly do vagrants lie when they need entertainment, and care not to tell truth.  Whosoever comes straying to the land of Ithaca, goes to my mistress and speaks words of guile.  And she receives him kindly and lovingly and inquires of all things, and the tears fall from her eyelids for weeping, as is meet for a woman when her lord hath