Thus he spake comforting her, but was himself the while framing death for her son.

Now she ascended to her shining upper chamber, and then was bewailing Odysseus, her dear lord, till grey-eyed Athene cast sweet sleep upon her eyelids.

And in the evening the goodly swineherd came back to Odysseus and his son, and they made ready and served the supper, when they had sacrificed a swine of a year old.  Then Athene drew near Odysseus, son of Laertes, and smote him with her wand, and made him into an old man again.  In sorry raiment she clad him about his body, lest the swineherd should look on him and know him, and depart to tell the constant Penelope, and not keep the matter in his heart.

Then Telemachus spake first to the swineherd, saying:  ’Thou hast come, goodly Eumaeus.  What news is there in the town?  Are the lordly wooers now come in from their ambush, or do they still watch for me as before on my homeward way?’

Then didst thou make answer, swineherd Eumaeus:  ’I had no mind to go down the city asking and inquiring hereof; my heart bade me get me home again, as quick as might be, when once I had told the tidings.  And the swift messenger from thy company joined himself unto me, the henchman, who was the first to tell the news to thy mother.  Yet this, too, I know, if thou wouldest hear; for I beheld it with mine eyes.  Already had I come in my faring above the city, where is the hill Hermaean, when I marked a swift ship entering our haven, and many men there were in her, and she was laden with shields and two-headed spears, and methought they were the wooers, but I know not at all.’

So spake he, and the mighty prince Telemachus smiled, and glanced at his father, while he shunned the eye of the swineherd.

Now when they had ceased from the work and got supper ready, they fell to feasting, and their hearts lacked not ought of the equal banquet.  But when they had put from them the desire of meat and drink, they bethought them of rest, and took the boon of sleep.

Book XVII

  Telemachus relates to his mother what he had heard at Pylos
  and Sparta.

So soon as early Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered, then Telemachus, the dear son of divine Odysseus, bound beneath his feet his goodly sandals, and took up his mighty spear that fitted his grasp, to make for the city; and he spake to his swineherd, saying: 

’Verily, father, I am bound for the city, that my mother may see me, for methinks that she will not cease from grievous wailing and tearful lament, until she beholds my very face.  But this command I give thee:  Lead this stranger, the hapless one, to the city, that there he may beg his meat, and whoso chooses will give him a morsel of bread and a cup of water.  As for myself, I can in no wise suffer every guest who comes to me, so afflicted am I in spirit.  But if the stranger be sore angered hereat, the more grievous will it be for himself; howbeit I for one love to speak the truth.’