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 carcass, and throw it headlong
from some steep rock into the sea, that poor men, taking example by me,
may fear to lie." But Eumaeus made answer that that should be small
satisfaction or pleasure to him.
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