died afar.  And quickly enough wouldst thou too, old man, forge a tale, if any would but give thee a mantle and a doublet for raiment.  But as for him, dogs and swift fowls are like already to have torn his skin from the bones, and his spirit hath left him.  Or the fishes have eaten him in the deep, and there lie his bones swathed in sand-drift on the shore.  Yonder then hath he perished, but for his friends nought is ordained but care, for all, but for me in chief.  For never again shall I find a lord so gentle, how far soever I may go, not though again I attain unto the house of my father and my mother, where at first I was born, and they nourished me themselves and with their own hands they reared me.  Nor henceforth it is not for these that I sorrow so much, though I long to behold them with mine eyes in mine own country, but desire comes over me for Odysseus who is afar.  His name, stranger, even though he is not here, it shameth me to speak, for he loved me exceedingly, and cared for me at heart; nay, I call him “worshipful,” albeit he is far hence.’

Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus spake to him again:  ’My friend, forasmuch as thou gainsayest utterly, and sayest that henceforth he will not come again, and thine heart is ever slow to believe, therefore will I tell thee not lightly but with an oath, that Odysseus shall return.  And let me have the wages of good tidings as soon as ever he in his journeying shall come hither to his home.  Then clothe me in a mantle and a doublet, goodly raiment.  But ere that, albeit I am sore in need I will not take aught, for hateful to me even as the gates of hell, is that man, who under stress of poverty speaks words of guile.  Now be Zeus my witness before any god, and the hospitable board and the hearth of noble Odysseus whereunto I am come, that all these things shall surely be accomplished even as I tell thee.  In this same year Odysseus shall come hither; as the old moon wanes and the new is born shall he return to his home, and shall take vengeance on all who here dishonour his wife and noble son.’

Then didst thou make answer, swineherd Eumaeus:  ’Old man, it is not I then, that shall ever pay thee these wages of good tidings, nor henceforth shall Odysseus ever come to his home.  Nay drink in peace, and let us turn our thoughts to other matters, and bring not these to my remembrance, for surely my heart within me is sorrowful whenever any man puts me in mind of my true lord.  But as for thine oath, we will let it go by; yet, oh that Odysseus may come according to my desire, and the desire of Penelope and of that old man Laertes and godlike Telemachus!  But now I make a comfortless lament for the boy begotten of Odysseus, even for Telemachus.  When the gods had reared him like a young sapling, and I thought that he would be no worse man among men than his dear father, glorious in form and face, some god or some man marred his good wits within him, and he went to fair Pylos after tidings of his sire.  And now