"Courage, old woman,"
thoughtful Telemachus tried to reassure her,
"there’s a god who made this plan.
But swear you won’t say anything to my mother.
Not till ten or a dozen days have passed
or she misses me herself and learns I’m gone.
She mustn’t mar her lovely face with tears."
The old one swore a solemn oath to the gods
and voring she would never breathe a word.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 2, lines 410-418. Telemachus makes Eurycleia swear an oath to conceal from his mother his plan to travel to Pylos for information about his missing father. He asks her not to tell Penelope until ten or twelve days after he has departed Ithaca. Eurycleia duly swears an oath not to breathe a word.