Counting pigs

Surrounded by big stakes, made of oak. Size of the stakes aside, it sounds a bit like a common garden fence.

Modern outdoor breeding

Odyssey Book 14 line 5-25 A. T. Murray

Okay, looking for big stones with thorns on top.

With huges stones had he built it, and set on it a coping of thorn.

and within the court he had made twelve sties close by one another, as beds for the swine, ....

Without he had driven stakes the whole length, this way and that, huge stakes, set close together, which he had made by splitting an oak to the black core;

Within the fence the twelve sties are found close to each other or side by side. Keeping that in mind, we continued on our way back to Eumaios' hut, trying not to get distracted in our search for the sties, because of the beauty of the surroundings.

Divided by twelve sties means about five sows per sty. The previously mentioned fifty sows can't be right, but fifty animals per sty could still be possible if each sow nurtures nine piglets. These numbers would also tally better with Eumaios' complaints about the dwindling number of boars, he can't afford any less if he wants to keep up with current demand of around 720 porkers each year or two a day.

Leaving the pig mathematics aside for now, let's walk on, have a look around and see if we can spot anything remotely resembling pig sties, here's what Homer tells us about them:

If we assume the 360 hogs are the result of one six month cycle, give or take any fatalities and female swine to replace the older ones and some boars to keep up production, and we assume a minimum of six piglets per sow, we can deduce there must have been about sixty sows in total.