Odysseus in the guise of a beggar said, ’I thank thee, lord Telemachus.  I would not stay here, for I am not of an age to wait about a hut and courtyard, obeying the orders of a master, even if that master be as good a man as thy swineherd.  Go thy way, lord Telemachus, and Eumaeus, as thou hast bidden him, will lead me into the City.’

Telemachus then passed out of the courtyard and went the ways until he came into the City.  When he went into the house, the first person he saw was his nurse, old Eurycleia, who welcomed him with joy.  To Eurycleia he spoke of the guest who had come on his ship, Theoclymenus.  He told her that this guest would be in the house that day, and that he was to be treated with all honour and reverence.  The wooers came into the hall and crowded around him, with fair words in their mouths.  Then all sat down at tables, and Eurycleia brought wheaten bread and wine and dainties.

Just at that time Odysseus and Eumaeus were journeying towards the City.  Odysseus, in the guise of a beggar, had a ragged bag across his shoulders and he carried a staff that the swineherd had given him to help him over the slippery ground.  They went by a rugged path and they came to a place where a spring flowed into a basin made for its water, and where there was an altar to the Nymphs, at which men made offerings.

As Eumaeus and Odysseus were resting at the spring, a servant from Odysseus’ house came along.  He was a goatherd, and Melanthius was his name.  He was leading a flock of goats for the wooers to kill, and when he saw the swineherd with the seeming beggar he cried out: 

’Now we see the vile leading the vile.  Say, swineherd, whither art thou leading this wretch?  It is easy to see the sort of fellow he is!  He is the sort to rub shoulders against many doorposts, begging for scraps.  Nothing else is he good for.  But if thou wouldst give him to me, swineherd, I would make him watch my fields, and sweep out my stalls, and carry fresh water to the kids.  He’d have his dish of whey from me.  But a fellow like this doesn’t want an honest job—­he wants to lounge through the country, filling his belly, without doing anything for the people who feed him up.  If he goes to the house of Odysseus, I pray that he be pelted from the door.’

He said all this as he came up to them with his flock of goats.  And as he went by he gave a kick to Odysseus.

Odysseus took thought whether he should strike the fellow with his staff or fling him upon the ground.  But in the end he hardened his heart to endure the insult, and let the goatherd go on his way.  But turning to the altar that was by the spring, he prayed: 

’Nymphs of the Well!  If ever Odysseus made offerings to you, fulfil for me this wish—­that he—­even Odysseus—­may come to his own home, and have power to chastise the insolence that gathers around his house.’

They journeyed on, and when they came near they heard the sound of the lyre within the house.  The wooers were now feasting, and Phemius the minstrel was singing to them.  And when Odysseus came before his own house, he caught the swineherd by the hand suddenly and with a hard grip, and he said: