d
men."

"I will not fail thee, of that be sure," replied Athene, "when the
time comes to enter on that task. They shall pay full dear for thy
substance which they devour, even with their very blood and brains,
which shall be shed upon the ground like water. But thou must not
appear among them in this fashion. I will give thee a disguise which
none can penetrate, not even Penelope herself. And when thou leavest
this place, go first to the swineherd, who abides ever by his charge,
faithful to thee and to thy house. Thou wilt find him sitting by the
swine on their feeding ground, near Raven's Rock and the fountain
Arethusa, where there is abundance of acorns and fair water. Remain
there and inquire of him concerning all things, while I go to Sparta
to summon Telemachus, thy son, who went to visit Menelaus to ask news
of thee."

"Why didst thou permit him to go on a vain errand?" asked Odysseus.
"Was it that he might suffer as I have suffered, in wandering o'er the
deep, while others devour his living?"

"Be not over anxious for him," answered Athene; "I myself sent him on
that quest, that he might win a good name among men. And now he sits
secure in the wealthy house of Menelaus, dwelling in luxury and
honour. The wooers have laid an ambush against his return; but all
their malice shall be brought to naught."

It was now time for Odysseus to start on his way to the swineherd. But
first he had to submit to a strange transformation. Athene touched him
with a rod which she was carrying, and instantly the flesh shrivelled
on his limbs, the clustering locks fell away from his head, and the
keen, piercing glance of his eyes was quenched. He who a moment before
had been a mighty man in his prime was now become a wrinkled, aged
beggar, clad in miserable, grimy rags, with a staff, and a tattered
scrip, hanging by a cord from his shoulder. For a cloak she gave him
an old deer's hide, from which all the hair was gone. Thus totally
disguised, he parted from the goddess, and started inland, following a
rugged mountain path, while Athene went to summon Telemachus from
Sparta.

Odysseus and Eumaeus

I

The office of swineherd was a position of great trust and importance
among the patriarchal chieftains of Homeric Greece. The principal diet
was the flesh of swine and oxen, and these animals formed the chief
part of their wealth. Eumaeus, the chief swineherd of Odysseus, lived
apart in a lonely place among the hills, wh