Then godlike Theoclymenus spake to him again:  ’Even so I too have fled from my country, for the manslaying of one of mine own kin.  And many brethren and kinsmen of the slain are in Argos, the pastureland of horses, and rule mightily over the Achaeans.  Wherefore now am I an exile to shun death and black fate at their hands, for it is my doom yet to wander among men.  Now set me on board ship, since I supplicate thee in my flight, lest they slay me utterly; for methinks they follow hard after me.’

And wise Telemachus answered him, saying:  ’Surely I will not drive thee away from our good ship, if thou art fain to come.  Follow thou with us then, and in Ithaca thou shalt be welcome to such things as we have.’

Therewith he took from him his spear of bronze, and laid it along the deck of the curved ship, and himself too climbed the seafaring ship.  Then he sat him down in the stern and made Theoclymenus to sit beside him; and his company loosed the hawsers.  Then Telemachus called unto his company, and bade them lay hands on the tackling, and speedily they hearkened to his call.  So they raised the mast of pine tree, and set it in the hole of the cross plank and made it fast with forestays, and hauled up the white sails with twisted ropes of ox-hide.  And grey-eyed Athene sent them a favouring breeze, rushing violently through the clear sky that the ship might speedily finish her course over the salt water of the sea.  So they passed by Crouni and Chalcis, a land of fair streams.

And the sun set and all the ways were darkened.  And the vessel drew nigh to Pheae, being sped before the breeze of Zeus, and then passed goodly Elis where the Epeans bear rule.  From thence he drave on again to the Pointed Isles, pondering whether he should escape death or be cut off.

Now Odysseus and the goodly swineherd were supping in the hut, and the other men sat at meat with them.  So when they had put from them the desire of meat and drink, Odysseus spake among them, to prove the swineherd, whether he would still entertain him diligently, and bid him abide there in the steading or send him forward to the city: 

’Listen now, Eumaeus, and all the others of the company.  In the morning I would fain be gone to the town to go a begging, that I be not ruinous to thyself and thy fellows.  Now advise me well, and lend me a good guide by the way to lead me thither; and through the city will I wander alone as needs I must, if perchance one may give me a cup of water and a morsel of bread.  Moreover I would go to the house of divine Odysseus and bear tidings to the wise Penelope, and consort with the wanton wooers, if haply they might grant me a meal out of the boundless store that they have by them.  Lightly might I do good service among them, even all that they would.  For lo!  I will tell thee and do thou mark and listen.  By the favour of Hermes, the messenger, who gives grace and glory to all men’s work, no mortal may vie with me in the business of a serving-man, in piling well a fire, in cleaving dry faggots, and in carving and roasting flesh and in pouring of wine, those offices wherein meaner men serve their betters.’