-213] PRELUDE TO THE CRISIS 309

house, rather than pack yourself off? I fancy that you and I will
have to sample each other's fists before we say goodbye. For I
don't like your way of begging. And anyhow this house is not
the only one where people dine/

Odysseus was prudent enough to give him back not a single
word. He merely shook his head in silence, though his heart
seethed with evil thoughts.

A third new arrival was the master-herdsman Philoetius,
who was driving in a heifer and some fatted goats for the
Suitors. These beasts had been brought over from the mainland
by the ferrymen who run a service for any travellers that turn
up. Philoetius carefully tethered his animals under the echoing
portico, and came up to the swineherd with a question. 'Who is
this stranger,9 he asked, * that hasjust come to our house? Where
does he hail from according to his own account? Who might his
people be, and what is his native place? He seems down on his
luck, and yet he has the bearing of a royal prince. But the gods
spoil a man's looks, even though he was bom in a palace, when
they force him to the wretched life of the road/

With this, he went up to Odysseus, proffered his hand and
greeted him with warmth. *A welcome to you, my ancient
friend! You are under the weather now; but here's to your
future happiness! Father Zeus, what a cruel god you are! There
is none harder. In dealing out misfortunes, misery, and suffering
to us men, no sense of mercy holds you back; yet it was you who
caused us to be bom. Sir, when I looked at you just now, the
sweat broke out on me and my eyes were filled with tears. You
had brought Odysseus to my mind; for I reckon that he too, in
just such rags as you have on, must be a wanderer on the face of
the earth, if indeed he is alive and can see the sunshine still. If not,
if he has gone below, then here's a sigh for the good Odysseus,
who set me over his cattle in the Cephallenian country when I
was only a lad. And now those broad-browed herds of mine
have multiplied beyond belief, like the ripening corn. Short of
a miracle, one couldn't hope for more. But as things are, new
masters order me to bring these cattle in, just for themselves to