Odysseus' cowherd on Ithaca, who like Eumaeus the swineherd kept faith through twenty years of absence and stood with the returned king when the suitors were slain.1
Homer brings Philoetius to the halls with cattle for the wooers' feast: a leader of men driving a barren heifer and fat she-goats brought over from the mainland. He cursed the suitors who devoured another man's goods and prayed that Odysseus might yet return — and if he did, Philoetius would give him a cloak and tunic and send him safe to Dulichium.2
When the beggar proved himself in the bow-contest and the slaughter began, Philoetius locked the outer gates with Eumaeus so none of the suitors could escape; he then fought in the hall beside Odysseus and Telemachus. When the kin of the slain rallied against the house, he armed at Laertes' side with Eumaeus.3
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story