Intensive farming

Sheep in pig-land

Odyssey Book 14 line 25-28 Berry B Powell

We had to walk back to Eumaios' hut the long way round, but it didn't matter because we were excited about finding the meadow of the hogs. There was no sign of the sties yet, though considering Eumaios would've built them with large stones, logically they should be easier to find than the meadow.

Three of his boys were off with the droves of swine, one here, one there, and a fourth he had sent to town to take a porker to the arrogant suitors.

Including Eumaios that's just five men to run a farm with a thousand swine 3,250 years ago? That's impossible, these numbers can't be right.

Homer mentions fifty female swine to each sty, which means the sties must have been enormous, and as there are twelve of them, the total comes to six hundred swine. Plus 360 hogs makes almost a thousand swine. Even with the diminishing number of boars, that's quite some intensive farming for 3,250 years ago!

After another eight weeks (56 days) the sucklings can do without their mother. The hogs are then separated and fattened. Just a few days later a sow is ready for the next cycle. It takes the piglets a further six months to fully mature, which means each cycle takes about 181 days, for both sow and piglet.

There might be a clue in the number of hogs: 360. After a pregnancy of three months, three weeks and three days (115 days), a sow gives birth to about six or more piglets.