"So be it, old friend," answered
Telemakhos, "but I am come now because I want to see you, and to
learn whether my mother is still at her old home or whether some one
else has married her, so that the bed of Odysseus is without bedding
and covered with cobwebs."
"She is still at the house,"
replied Eumaios, "grieving and breaking her heart, and doing nothing
but weep, both night and day continually."
As spoke he took Telemakhos’
spear, whereon he crossed the stone threshold and came inside.
Odysseus rose from his seat to give him place as he entered, but
Telemakhos checked him; "Sit down, stranger." said he, "I can easily
find another seat, and there is one here who will lay it for
me."
Odysseus went back to his own
place, and Eumaios strewed some green brushwood on the floor and
threw a sheepskin on top of it for Telemakhos to sit upon. Then the
swineherd brought them platters of cold meat, the remains from what
they had eaten the day before, and he filled the bread baskets with
bread as fast as he could. He mixed wine also in bowls of ivy-wood,
and took his seat facing Odysseus. Then they laid their hands on the
good things that were before them, and as soon as they had had enough
to eat and drink Telemakhos said to Eumaios, "Old friend, where does
this stranger come from? How did his crew bring him to Ithaca, and
who were they?-for assuredly he did not come here by
land"’
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