2nd+journal+entry+for+eumaeus

Dear journal,

Such a strange day this was. I was about to feed my swine when I hear the booming snarling and barking of my guard dogs. Alarmed, I ran towards the source of the noise, and found there an old beggar dressed in a terribly torn garment. Immediately I thanked he gods for seeing that he was not ripped apart by my dogs, for if he had, I would be greatly burdened as the cause of his death. I spoke to him and bade him come with me to my home. I gave him bread, wine and meat, and he ate and drank quite hastily and thankfully. Not soon after he had finished, he asked me of my tale, and how I came to be in this country.

For hours we sat and I spoke to him of my journey from my homeland, Phoenicia, where my father ruled with a slave who raised me. it was not meant to be and I ended up being sold as a slave by the people who brought me here. I told him that I have been a swine heard for pretty much my entire life. The stranger bowed his head at my sorrows as, and finally I showed him where he may sleep, and I covered myself with a cloak and went out to guard my swine.

I pray to the gods for Telemachus, and that he may return unscathed, and for our late king Odysseus, though I have the strangest feeling that he may be closer than I know.

Eumaeus