And Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying:  ’Ah, Eumaeus, how far then didst thou wander from thine own country and thy parents while as yet thou wast but a child!  But come, declare me this and plainly tell it all.  Was a wide-wayed town of men taken and sacked, wherein dwelt thy father and thy lady mother, or did unfriendly men find thee lonely, tending sheep or cattle, and shipped thee thence, and sold thee into the house of thy master here, who paid for thee a goodly price?’

Then spake to him the swineherd, a master of men:  Stranger, since thou askest and questionest me hereof, give heed now in silence and make merry, and abide here drinking wine.  Lo, the nights now are of length untold.  Time is there to sleep, and time to listen and be glad; thou needest not turn to bed before the hour; even too much sleep is vexation of spirit.  But for the rest, let him whose heart and mind bid him, go forth and slumber, and at the dawning of the day let him break his fast, and follow our master’s swine.  But let us twain drink and feast within the steading, and each in his neighbour’s sorrows take delight, recalling them, for even the memory of griefs is a joy to a man who hath been sore tried and wandered far.  Wherefore I will tell thee that whereof thou askest and dost question me.

’There is a certain isle called Syria, if haply thou hast heard tell of it, over above Ortygia, and there are the turning-places of the sun.  It is not very great in compass, though a goodly isle, rich in herds, rich in flocks, with plenty of corn and wine.  Dearth never enters the land, and no hateful sickness falls on wretched mortals.  But when the tribes of men grow old in that city, then comes Apollo of the silver bow, with Artemis, and slays them with the visitation of his gentle shafts.  In that isle are two cities, and the whole land is divided between them, and my father was king over the twain, Ctesius son of Ormenus, a man like to the Immortals.

’Thither came the Phoenicians, mariners renowned, greedy merchant men, with countless gauds in a black ship.  Now in my father’s house was a Phoenician woman, tall and fair and skilled in bright handiwork; this woman the Phoenicians with their sleights beguiled.  First as she was washing clothes, one of them lay with her in love by the hollow ship, for love beguiles the minds of womankind, even of the upright.  Then he asked her who she was and whence she came, and straightway she showed him the lofty home of my father, saying: 

’"From out of Sidon I avow that I come, land rich in bronze, and I am the daughter of Arybas, the deeply wealthy.  But Taphians, who were sea-robbers, laid hands on me and snatched me away as I came in from the fields, and brought me hither and sold me into the house of my master, who paid for me a goodly price.”

’Then the man who had lain with her privily, answered:  “Say, wouldst thou now return home with us, that thou mayst look again on the lofty house of thy father and mother and on their faces?  For truly they yet live, and have a name for wealth.”