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In the next part of our story we're gonna
see Odysseus kick up his social game

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a couple of notches.
He is going to start to make connections

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and these connections are gonna be the
crucial next building blocks in his finding

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his way into his own house.
The first connection we see him make is

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a sad one with his little dog. Remember, that dog
had been waiting for him to come home,

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presumably a puppy when Odysseus left, 
and on seeing the man

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when he returns has such
excitement in his mind that off he goes

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and falls victim to his own excitement at seeing
his master.

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We spend time with Eumaeus.
Eumaeus is going to be this crucial,

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figure that we make contact with.
The swineherd.

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And his social position, is about as low
as it could go.

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It could get maybe a little lower.
But Eumaeus has a position in the

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household, that's a good thing.
The position he has though is one that has no

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prestige at all.
So we' re entering into society.

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Odysseus is entering into society at the
very lowest points of his society.

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He needs to earn his place there first,
then make his way in

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to the other levels that he aspires to.
We'll see hospitality between Odysseus and Eumaeus

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the Xenia is very well practiced
here.

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Eumaeus exercises it in his own humble
style.

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It is appropriate to what he is able to
offer.

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He offers pig meat, like we see here,

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not cow.
So the less expensive kind of meat he offers.

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Sheepskin for a bed.

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There's a simple cloak involved.
We're not in the world of fancy, fabulous

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tapestries and jewel encrusted furniture,
or anything like that.

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Odysseus is a good guest.
He accepts the gift, they make a connection

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over their sharing of that
gift, and all is well.

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Eumaeus is pretty consistently
you'll see in these books, referred to in

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the second person.
Homer says, "You, Eumaeus, you got yourself

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then connected with Odysseus."
That'll come up several times.

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Many people say, "My goodness that's
strange, doesn't happen elsewhere

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in Homer's epic poetry."
Well there are actually a couple of

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characters, Eumaeus is prominent among
them, that Homer addresses

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in the second person.
These are very well trusted people in the

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inner circle of Odysseus's household.
And there's a kind of intimacy that is

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suggested by that second person pronoun.
As though Homer wants us to have a special

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kind of connection
with that person in Odysseus' house.

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Now, the connection with Eumaeus.
Yeah.

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That's good.
We've got a guest-host relationship.

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We're connected.
But Odysseus wants something out of that

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connection.
And what he wants the most is information.

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He needs to learn.
In order to learn from Eumaeus, he

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does it slightly by circuitous kinds of routes.

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He makes a connection, and he does that

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mostly via conversation.
He needs to offer Eumaeus

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some things, he has to tell him about
himself, Odysseus.

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Doing that, he's laying the ground for the
next thing he wants to do, which is to ask

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Eumaeus information that's going to be
valuable to him.

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But Odysseus knows that he needs to kind
of first lay things out and set the stage.

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He needs to make that social connection.
The two of them are going to go back and forth,

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Eumaeus and Odysseus,
and it's like they're bringing, going back

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to our verb of weaving, it's like they're
handing the shuttle back and forth and

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weaving the fabric of their social
interaction,

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that connection that they're going to make.
Odysseus, as you know, is an

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eminent liar and he's gonna go ahead and
lie his pants off in this part

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A long lie that goes on for many pages.

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Almost ten of our pages in Fagle's is
Odysseus just cooking up more elaborate

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and more elaborate pieces to his story.
Long, long, long.

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At a certain point, we are thinking to ourselves, 
"this is a long digression,"

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but remember, what Odysseus is doing is
trying to make that humane connection, and

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to do that he needs to give something to
Eumaeus.

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Turns out it's all a lie but it is a kind of
moment of giving.

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In that back and forth, 
just kind of leading up to it,

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leading up to the longer speech,
Eumaeus lets out to Odysseus an important

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piece of information.
Many strangers come to visit the island

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and approach Penelope.
She welcomes them in and listens for news

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of Odysseus, he tells us at page 305 in 
Fagle's translation.

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So we have a characterization of Penelope
that seems to be pretty good.

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She brings in strangers, but only so she

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can hear news of where Odysseus is.
Then Eumaeus asks Odysseus in disguise,

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"Who are you?"
Which is what Odysseus launches off onto

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on his part of the story.
And that "Who are you?" is reminiscent of

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what we've already seen Odysseus
doing with the Phaeacians.

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Who are you?
Where are you from?

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Your city?
Your parents?

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What sort of vessel brought you here?
And why?

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What's your background?
All of those things come along.

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So Odysseus to be persuasive - remember our
universal law number two,

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he knows his audience -
he tells Eumaeus the kind of story that he

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thinks Eumaeus is going to want to hear.
It's something that dovetails with some

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aspects of Eumaeus's own background.
Makes some connection there.

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It also though, carries a lot of aspects
to it that are somehow similar to what the

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real truth is.
This brings us to our universal law number five.

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Remember universal laws.

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True for all human beings or
pretty much most of them.

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When you tell a lie, you should tell a lie
that's close to the truth.

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That's universal law number five, when you
tell a lie, you should tell a lie that's

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close to the truth.
This lets you inhabit the lie as though

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you really lived it because it's close to
something you knew and if you're ever

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about to get caught out in something ,
what you say in your lie, as long it's

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close to what really happened, there'll be
a way for you to fill in whatever gap

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shows up later.
So Odysseus tells a story that is rife

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with all kinds of adventurous details about
someone being blown from pillar to post,

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it involves some engagement in Troy, it
talks about the heroes there.

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We have lots of detail that
maps on to what Odysseus himself has

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actually really experienced.
Helps Odysseus inhabit that story

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persuasively,
make it seem like it's true and gives him

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a way to avoid getting caught out.
One aspect of this story that he closes

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with is that Odysseus is on his way.
He tells Eumaeus.

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Now this is going to be a very good way for
Odysseus to start to test where Eumaeus's

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loyalties are.
When Odysseus says, "Hey,

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Odysseus is coming."
He can look right at Eumaeus' eyes to say.

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"What do you think of that?

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What do you think of that?"
And he's going to be carefully examining

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Eumaeus' response to this.
Eumaeus has an overjoyed reaction.

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"That's great.
Let's, you know, get ready cause here he's,

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here he's going to come."
That is just the kind of thing Odysseus

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wanted to hear.
It helps him make this connection and know

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that he can trust,
start to think that he can trust, Eumaeus.

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At the end of this long story though, 
that Odysseus tells, Eumaeus has

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this wonderful reaction to it.
"Oh yeah.

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Well, you know, there's lots of lies.
People tell us lies all the time,

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coming through here.
(Page 313.)

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In fact I just recently heard from someone
who claim they came from this Greek that

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you talked about, Idomeneus and Crete,

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blah, blah, blah, blah.
But in the meantime, I'm gonna be a good

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host.
The reason I'm gonna be nice to you is not

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because I believe all your lies.
It seems like you're just telling tall tales

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but instead I'm going to be a good
host and that connection, between the two

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of them, is sealed on this host-guest
relationship of Xenia.

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Neither one of them is a fool, 
even Eumaeus, at the low end

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of the social totem pole, is not a fool.

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So, the connection between them is just
getting started.

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It's going to build to new depths, in the
coming books.