diary+entries+for+eumaeus

Dear journal,

Day by day, year by year, I raise and slaughter these swine. I work hard and serve though I oppose those that I do. Most of us in Ithaka have pretended to move on, but beneath our careful façade lies a terrible grieving for the loss of our great king the renowned Odysseus, and the final shreds of hope for his return. Many young men of this land have taken over his hall, demanding that Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, select one of them to be her husband, and therefore the king of Ithaka. Therefore I am forced to serve these wretched traitors, and my heart smolders with rage when I set the meat on in front of them. Telemachus, our late master’s son, has left his home land here on a ship, on a search for tidings of his father. O mighty Zeus! Protect young Telemachus and see he reaches Ithaka once again! I fear what plights ay befall him at sea for Poseidon, the god of the sea’s hate for his father. So often does Telemachus visit me at my dwelling, and if he should not return it would be more like losing a son than losing a master. I’m afraid it is time again for me to slay my finest beasts and deliver them to those I loathe. May the gods smite them with a punishment worthy of their awful deeds!

Eumaeus