In his beggar’s clothes Odysseus followed the road Athena had named. At the end of the mountain path stood a pig pen and one hut, and inside an older man was stitching a leather sandal.
Four hunting dogs caught the strange scent and rushed at him. Odysseus put down his staff and sat himself on the ground, and Eumaeus threw stones and drove the dogs off.
“You came near to being badly torn by those dogs.” He brought the stranger inside the hut. He spread dry grass and took off his own cloak to lay over it.