BOOK XVI.
ARGUMENT.
They in the mean time, Ulysses and the divine swineherd, were preparing their meal in the lodge together with the dawn, having lit a fire, and they sent out the herdsmen with the field-pasturing swine. But the barking dogs fawned about Telemachus, nor did they bark at him as he approached: but divine Ulysses perceived the dogs fawning, and the sound of feet came about him: and he quickly addressed to Eumæus winged words:
"O Eumæus, certainly some companion of thine will come hither, or some one else, who is known: since the dogs do not bark, but fawn around him: and I hear somewhat the noise of feet."
Scarcely had he finished speaking, when his dear son stood in the portico: and the swineherd rushed up astonished; and the vessels, with which he was busied, mixing the dark wine, fell from his hands. And he came to meet the king; and he kissed his[1] head, and both his beautiful eyes, and both his hands: and the warm tear fell from him. And as a father being kindly disposed embraces his son, when he comes from a foreign land in the tenth year, his only one, born to him in his old age,[2] for whom he has toiled through many griefs; so then the divine swineherd clinging to godlike Telemachus, kissed him all over, as having escaped from death: and then lamenting he spoke winged words:
"Thou art come, O Telemachus, my sweet light; I said that I should not behold thee again, when thou wentest in a ship to Pylos: but come now, my dear child, enter, that I may be delighted in my mind, beholding thee within, who art lately come from elsewhere: for thou dost not frequently
