Antinous and Eurymachus, leaders of the suitors, still held back from the trial. Meanwhile the cowherd and the swineherd went out of the hall together. Odysseus followed them. When they were outside the courtyard and the gates, he spoke: Cowherd, and you, swineherd — shall I say something, or keep it in? What would you do if Odysseus came suddenly, brought by some god? Would you stand with the suitors or with Odysseus? Tell me as your heart urges.
The cowherd answered: Father Zeus, fulfill this wish — that the man may come, and some god guide him. Then you would see my strength and my hands ready. In the same way Eumaeus prayed to all the gods that wise Odysseus might come home. When he knew their true minds, Odysseus spoke again: Inside I am here — I myself. After twenty years of suffering I have come to my own country. I see that of all my men you two alone long for my return. If a god brings down the proud suitors under my hands, I will find you each a wife, grant you possessions and houses built near my own, and thereafter you shall be comrades and brothers of Telemachus. Come — I will show you a clear sign: the scar the boar gave me with his white tusk when I went to Parnassus with the sons of Autolycus.
As he spoke he drew aside the rags from the great scar. When they had seen it plain, they threw their arms about wise Odysseus and kissed his head and shoulders, weeping. Odysseus likewise kissed their heads and hands. And the light of the sun would have gone down on their weeping if Odysseus himself had not checked them: Stop your crying, or someone coming from the hall may see and tell those inside. Go in now, not together but one after the other — I first, then you. And let this be our sign: the proud suitors will not let me have the bow. But you, good Eumaeus, as you carry the bow through the hall, put it in my hands, and tell the women to bar the doors of their room. If any hears groaning or noise of men within our walls, let her not come out, but stay in silence at her work. And you, good Philoetius, bolt the courtyard gate with its bar and rope it fast.