Eumaeus

Who He Is

Eumaeus is the swineherd of Odysseus, the servant who most cares for his master's goods, and who raises the pigs in a round yard that he built on his own after the king's departure. He was kidnapped as a boy from an island where his father ruled, sold to Laertes, and raised in Ithaca. It is to him that Athena sends the hero in disguise, and his hut is the place where the poem shows what Odysseus's house has of its own. He welcomes the beggar without knowing who he is, without believing what he says, and without expecting anything in return.

Trajectory

In Book XIII, the poem prepares him through Athena, who sends Odysseus to the Raven's Rock and to the spring Arethusa, where the swineherd lives with the pigs, and says that he loves his master, his son, and the prudent Penelope.

In Book XIV, Eumaeus cuts leather sandals at the entrance of the yard when the dogs run at Odysseus, who sits down by cunning. He drives the dogs off with stones and rebukes the stranger. He says he mourns his master and raises fat pigs for others to eat. He welcomes the guest with the rule that it is not lawful to dishonor one who comes, because all strangers and beggars come from Zeus, he serves him the young pigs, and says that the fattened swine belong to the suitors.

When Odysseus offers news, Eumaeus refuses it: wandering men lie to win a welcome, and he was deceived by an Aetolian. He is ashamed to name his master, whom he calls dear brother. Odysseus swears, by Zeus, that he will return this year, and Eumaeus does not accept the reward for good news. He fears for the son, whom the nobles lie in wait for on his return from Pylos. When the beggar tells a Cretan story, Eumaeus accepts the suffering and rejects what he says of Odysseus: his certainty is that his master died hated by the gods.

Then he says why he welcomes him, even without believing him: out of fear of Zeus of hospitality and out of compassion. He refuses the proposal to throw the beggar from a rock if the master does not return, for what fame would he have among the men of now and of times to come? He sacrifices the best pig, casts the first offerings into the fire, and prays that Odysseus will return to this house. At night, when the beggar tells him a cloak story to test his care, he passes the test: he praises the story, gives him a thick cloak, and goes to sleep outside, armed, beside the pigs.

In Book XV, Eumaeus grows alarmed when the guest proposes to serve the suitors, and describes whom he would be serving: men whose insolence reaches the iron sky. He tells Odysseus his story, that of a boy carried off by a Phoenician nurse and sold to Laertes, and speaks of Laertes, who asks Zeus that life let him go, and of Anticleia, who died of grief. Telemachus arrives at the hut at the end of the book.

In Book XVI, on seeing Telemachus, he drops the vessels, runs to kiss his head, eyes, and hands, and weeps like a father who receives his only son after ten years. He carries the news to Penelope and returns to the pigs.

In Book XVII, he goes with the beggar to the city and prays to the nymphs at the spring for Odysseus's return. At the palace door, before Argos abandoned in the dung, he explains the neglect with a maxim: Zeus takes away half of a man's excellence when the day of slavery seizes him. In the hall, Telemachus has him take bread to the beggar, and he answers Antinous.

In Book XX, he arrives with three pigs and asks Odysseus whether the Achaeans look on him better. In Book XXI, he receives the bow in tears and sets it before the suitors. When Odysseus asks him what he would do if his master returned, he prays to all the gods for the return, and then hears: the master is here. He sees the scar, weeps, and embraces him. He carries the bow into Odysseus's hands through the hall, despite the shouts, after Telemachus orders him to.

In Book XXII, he arms himself and guards the side door, kills Polybus, and mocks Melanthius, whom he helps to tie up on the beam. He takes part in the punishment of the maids. In Book XXIV, he goes with Odysseus and Telemachus to Laertes's farm and prepares the dinner with the best pig.

Themes Embodied

Eumaeus embodies Loyalty and betrayal, on the side of loyalty: he serves without expecting pay, without believing his master will return, and the poem sets him against those who eat without paying. He also embodies a hospitality that does not depend on believing the guest, and so Home, exile, and return, because the house that the suitors devour still stands in his hands.

Eumaeus's refusal to believe Odysseus is not naivety: he has already been deceived by an Aetolian, and he has seen wandering men lie to the queen for clothes. The book shows that a well-founded distrust can reject a truth, and that his welcome is worth the most precisely because it does not depend on belief. The same man who prays for his master's return says that he will not return, and the poem does not choose between a rite without hope and a hope that does not confess itself.

Relationships

• Odysseus: the master he weeps for, welcomes without knowing, and recognizes in Book XXI.
• Telemachus: the young man he embraces as a son and whom he warns of the dangers.
• Athena: the goddess who points the hero to him.
• Laertes: the old man who bought him and whom he serves.
• Zeus: the god in whose name he welcomes.
• Antinous: the suitor who rebukes him for bringing beggars.