men were tears created: for I never
shall find so kind a royal master more; not if my father or my mother
could come again and visit me from the tomb, would my eyes be so
blessed, as they should be with the sight of him again, coming as from
the dead. In his last rest my soul shall love him. He is not here, nor
do I name him as a flatterer, but because I am thankful for his love
and care which he had to me a poor man; and if I knew surely that he
were past all shores that the sun shines upon, I would invoke him as a
deified thing."

For this saying of Eumaeus the waters stood in Ulysses's eyes, and he
said, "My friend, to say and to affirm positively that he cannot be
alive, is to give too much licence to incredulity. For, not to speak
at random, but with as much solemnity as an oath comes to, I say to
you that Ulysses shall return, and whenever that day shall be, then
shall you give to me a cloak and a coat; but till then, I will not
receive so much as a thread of a garment, but rather go naked; for
no less than the gates of hell do I hate that man, whom poverty can
force to tell an untruth. Be Jove then witness to my words, that this
very year, nay ere this month be fully ended, your eyes shall behold
Ulysses, dealing vengeance in his own palace upon the wrongers of his
wife and his son."

To give the better credence to his words, he amused Eumaeus with a
forged story of his life, feigning of himself that he was a Cretan
born, and one that went with Idomeneus to the wars of Troy. Also he
said that he knew Ulysses, and related various passages which he
alleged to have happened betwixt Ulysses and himself, which were
either true in the main, as having really happened between Ulysses and
some other person, or were so like to truth, as corresponding with the
known character and actions of Ulysses, that Eumaeus's incredulity was
not a little shaken. Among other things he asserted that he had lately
been entertained in the court of Thesprotia, where the king's son of
the country had told him, that Ulysses had been there but just before
him, and was gone upon a voyage to the oracle of Jove in Dodona,
whence he should shortly return, and a ship would be ready by the
bounty of the Thesprotians to convoy him straight to Ithaca. "And in
token that what I tell you is true," said Ulysses, "if your king come
not within the period which I have named, you shall have leave to
give your servants commandment to take my old carcase, an