Odysseus Revealed to Telemachus — The recognition at the swineherd's hut

Book 16 of The Odyssey by Homer

Now at the break of day, Odysseus and the goodly swineherd kindled a fire within the lodge and prepared their morning meal, and they sent the herdsmen out with the droves of swine. When Telemachus drew near, the yelping dogs fawned about him and did not bark. Odysseus marked the fawning of the dogs and heard the sound of footsteps, and straightway he spoke to Eumaeus winged words: "Eumaeus, of a surety some companion of thine is coming, or at least someone well-known, for the dogs do not bark but fawn about him, and I hear the fall of footsteps." The word was not yet fully spoken when his own dear son stood in the doorway. The swineherd sprang up in amazement and the bowls in which he had been busy mixing the dark wine fell from his hands.

He went to meet his young lord and kissed his head and both his fair eyes and both his hands, and a big tear fell from him. As a loving father greets his son who has come in the tenth year from a far country, his only son and well-beloved, for whose sake he has borne much travail — even so did the goodly swineherd fall upon the neck of godlike Telemachus and kiss him all over, as one escaped from death. And weeping he spoke to him winged words: "Thou art come, Telemachus, sweet light of my eyes. I thought I should see thee never again, after thou hadst gone in thy ship to Pylos. Nay, come in, dear child, that my heart may be glad at the sight of thee in my house, who art newly come from afar. For thou dost not often visit the farm and the herdsmen, but abidest in the town. So it seems thy good pleasure to look upon the ruinous throng of the wooers." And wise Telemachus answered him: "So be it, father. For thy sake am I come hither, to see thee with my eyes and to hear from thy lips whether my mother still abides in the halls or whether another man has already wedded her, and the couch of Odysseus lies perchance in lack of bedding and is covered with foul spider-webs."

Then Telemachus entered the well-built lodge, and as he came in Odysseus rose from his seat to give him place, but Telemachus checked him from the further side and spoke: "Be seated, stranger, and we will find a seat elsewhere in our farmstead. Here is the man who will set one for me." So he spoke, and Odysseus went back and sat down again, and the swineherd strewed green brushwood below and a fleece upon it, and there the dear son of Odysseus sat him down. The swineherd set before them platters of roast flesh, the meat that was left from the meal of yesterday. He heaped bread in baskets, and mixed wine sweet as honey in a bowl of ivy-wood, and himself sat down over against divine Odysseus. They stretched forth their hands upon the good cheer set before them, and when they had put away their desire for meat and drink, Telemachus spoke to the goodly swineherd: "Father, whence came this stranger to thee? How did sailors bring him to Ithaca, and who did they declare themselves to be? For I deem he did not come hither on foot."