Summary Book 14- Max

Although I didn't get a chance to present in class, here's my summary of Book 14, where Odysseus stays with the swineherd and shares the "stories" of his travels. This can get kind of confusing because Odysseus talks about himself as if he himself is not Odysseus. He tells the swineherd all kinds of stories about Odysseus and ensures that Odysseus will show up even though he already has, so as to maintain his disguise as an "old man."

We left off with Odysseus and Athena parting ways as Athena goes to retrieve and aid Telemachos. Odysseus travels to the swineherd (Eumaios) as directed by Athene. The swineherd built the enclosure himself for the pigs of his master. 

The enclosure is made up of 12 pens each concealing 50 female pigs while the male ones slept outside, The number of males keeps diminishing because the suitors keep eating them. The total number of males is around 360,  with 600 females(?), and a total of almost 1000 pigs all guarded by 4 dogs! 

The swineherd fits sandals to his feet just as the gods do as a symbol of his upcoming noble behavior when he takes care of Odysseus.

Swineherd runs to Odysseus who was being attacked by the dogs until the swineherd called them off. Eumaios then talks about how he is raising these pigs for his absent master, only to be consumed by ravaging suitors while his master is probably rummaging for food on some alien countryside.

He shows "xenia" towards this old man (Odysseus) by first feeding him, and then asking about his travels. Eumaios seats him on a pile of brushwood covered with a wild goat hide from his own bed.

Odysseus blesses the swineherd in the name of Zeus for his acts towards him. Eumaios then tells Odysseus that he has no right to deny a stranger no matter how cruel or mean they are or seem to be.

Eumaios then talks about how he is angry with Helen because it's because of her that his master rode  off to Ilion (Troy).

He then takes 2 of the small pigs and slaughters them, and cooks them for a meal for the two of them to enjoy. Eumaios sets before him the roasted pigs with barley and sweet wine in a bowl of ivy.

Tells Odysseus (disguised as Old Man) that they eat the young pigs because only the suitors can eat the fattened pigs so as to please them.

Then goes on telling how great and awesome Odysseus, his master, was. Every day the herders offer a sheep, a goat, and a pig, all the finest they could find for the suitors.

Odysseus then asks Eumaios of who he speaks so highly of to have all of this kleos and arete on the island. Eumaios is still convinced that Odysseus is dead somewhere, rotting and his flesh being picked at by all kinds of fauna, not knowing that he is talking to him at this very moment.

Odysseus assures Eumaios that Odysseus is on his way home and that this is not just another one of those falsely-spun stories that have frequently claimed the tears of Penelope.

Eumaios is very certain that Odysseus is never coming home and rejects the Old Man's news. Eumaios tells Odysseus that the suitors lay in wait for Telemachos upon his return from Pylos.

Eumaios then asks who the Old Man is, while Odysseus witfully tells him that there is not enough food nor wine to accompany his story explaining who he is and where he came from.

Odysseus then gives in and explains, very thoroughly, of his false identity to Eumaios. He then seemingly combines the stories of Menelaos in his own. Talks about clasping the knees of the King of Egypt and how the King pitied him (Odysseus). Then he "goes" to Phoenicia where he is welcomed and told he can go on a ship back to Ithaka, while they are actually going to sell him as a slave in Libya. Zeus crashed this ship and he floated for 9-days, where afterwards he washed upon the shore of Thesprotia (King was Pheidon). In this part of the story, the son of the King found him and brought him before the King where he learned that Odysseus had been there and he now travels to Dodona on another ship. He was then stripped of the clothing given to him by Pheidon on his way to Doulichion and was gonna be sold as a slave in Ithaka but he escaped and jumped into the water, and that's how he ended up there.

Eumaios is still a little skeptical about his story, but takes to heart the information about Odysseus' homecoming that the "old man" has given him. Odysseus even tells Eumaios to kill him if he's wrong so as to make an example in front of other vagabonds.

Once all the other swineherds come home, they slaughter a large pig and give Odysseus the largest, most honorable portion of the pig. Odysseus shares a story of when he was in Troy with Odysseus and they survived a long, cold night just like this one and he wished he had a mantle: basically asking the swineherds for one of their own mantles. They tell him that once Telemachos comes back he will give him one because they don't have any extras. The book ends with Eumaios going outside with a great mantle, a sword, and a javelin for protection as he sleeps with the swine in their "hollow of a rock, sheltered from the North Wind."