Why Eumaeus? The fate of Achaea is shrouded, hinted at through the woeful fate of non-returning veterans of the Mycenaean grand folly. Telemachus and his Ithaca are statistics for archeology. Nor do we know what happened to Eumaeus, but Eumaeus is only a swineherd and a slave, not even a peasant. We don’t need to know what happens to Eumaeus, save that we know him to be a man who understands the skills of abiding. Eumaeus is the us of non-history. We are the us who have survived, so far, as Eumaeus could tell us, in order to keep the tales alive and moving.