Who He Is
Laertes is the father of Odysseus, son of Arcesius, the old man who withdrew from the city to the countryside and lives in mourning for his son. He sleeps with the servants, in the ashes by the fire in winter and in beds of leaves in the vineyard in summer, and asks Zeus to let his life go. For him Penelope weaves a shroud. The poem introduces him through news from others and shows him on stage only in the last book, digging around a plant, alone.
Trajectory
In Book II, Laertes is the target of Penelope's trick, the shroud she says she is weaving for him and uses to postpone the marriage for three years. In Book IV, when Penelope wants to warn him of the ambush against his grandson, Eurycleia asks that he be spared, because the gods should not hate the line of Arcesius.
In Book XI, in Hades, the mother of Odysseus tells her son how his father lives: he does not come down to the city, has no bed or blankets, sleeps in the ashes by the fire in winter and in leaves in the vineyard in summer, feeding his grief and longing for his son's return, while old age weighs on him. She herself died of the same longing.
ἀλλά με σός τε πόθος σά τε μήδεα, φαίδιμʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ, / σή τʼ ἀγανοφροσύνη μελιηδέα θυμὸν ἀπηύρα.(11.202-203), but longing for you, your plans, illustrious Odysseus, and your gentle spirit took from me my sweet-as-honey life.
In Book XV, Eumaeus tells Odysseus, not knowing who he is, that Laertes is still alive but prays to Zeus every day that life will leave his limbs, from weeping for the son who is gone.
Λαέρτης μὲν ἔτι ζώει, Διὶ δʼ εὔχεται αἰεὶ / θυμὸν ἀπὸ μελέων φθίσθαι οἷς ἐν μεγάροισιν· / ἐκπάγλως γὰρ παιδὸς ὀδύρεται οἰχομένοιο(15.353-355), Laertes is still alive, but always prays to Zeus that life may leave his limbs in his house; for he grieves excessively for the son who is gone.
In Book XVI, Eumaeus asks Telemachus whether he should tell the old man that he has come back, because since the boy left, his grandfather neither eats nor drinks and only weeps. Telemachus orders the housekeeper to tell him in secret. In the same book, Odysseus orders that no one should know he has returned, not even Laertes. In Book XIX, Penelope tells the beggar about the trick of Laertes's shroud. In Book XXIII, at dawn, Odysseus says he will go to the land of many trees to see his father, who suffers for him.
In Book XXIV, Odysseus reaches his father's orchard and finds him alone, digging around a plant, in a dirty, patched tunic, leather leggings against the thorns, gloves, and a goatskin cap, nursing his grief. He hesitates between embracing him and testing him, and begins with mocking words, speaking of a guest who claimed to be from Ithaca. Laertes answers in tears that the son, if he ever existed, may have been eaten by fish, without his mother, his father, or Penelope mourning him. When the stranger says Odysseus left him five years ago, the old man pours ash over his gray head.
μερμήριξε δʼ ἔπειτα κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμὸν / κύσσαι καὶ περιφῦναι ἑὸν πατέρʼ, ἠδὲ ἕκαστα / εἰπεῖν, ὡς ἔλθοι καὶ ἵκοιτʼ ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν, / ἦ πρῶτʼ ἐξερέοιτο ἕκαστά τε πειρήσαιτο. / ὧδε δέ οἱ φρονέοντι δοάσσατο κέρδιον εἶναι, / πρῶτον κερτομίοις ἐπέεσσιν πειρηθῆναι.(24.235-240), then he hesitated in his heart and his spirit, whether to kiss and embrace his father and tell him everything, how he had come back to his native land, or first to question him and test him. As he pondered, it seemed better to test him first with mocking words.
ἠέ που ἐν πόντῳ φάγον ἰχθύες, ἢ ἐπὶ χέρσου / θηρσὶ καὶ οἰωνοῖσιν ἕλωρ γένετʼ· οὐδέ ἑ μήτηρ / κλαῦσε περιστείλασα πατήρ θʼ, οἵ μιν τεκόμεσθα·(24.291-293), perhaps the fish in the sea have eaten him, or on land he became prey for beasts and birds; nor did his mother weep for him after shrouding him, nor his father, we who bore him.
Odysseus runs to embrace him, tells him to stop weeping, and says he has killed the suitors. Laertes asks for a sign: Odysseus shows him the scar from the boar and then lists the trees the father gave him in the orchard when he was a child, thirteen pear trees, ten apple trees, forty fig trees. The old man's knees give way, and Odysseus holds him up.
κεῖνος μέν τοι ὅδʼ αὐτὸς ἐγώ, πάτερ, ὃν σὺ μεταλλᾷς, / ἤλυθον εἰκοστῷ ἔτεϊ ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν. / ἀλλʼ ἴσχεο κλαυθμοῖο γόοιό τε δακρυόεντος. / ἐκ γάρ τοι ἐρέω· μάλα δὲ χρὴ σπευδέμεν ἔμπης· / μνηστῆρας κατέπεφνον ἐν ἡμετέροισι δόμοισι, / λώβην τινύμενος θυμαλγέα καὶ κακὰ ἔργα.(24.321-326), that man you ask about, father, is I myself; I came to my native land in the twentieth year. But stop your weeping and your tearful lament. I will tell you everything, though we must hurry: I killed the suitors in our house, avenging the outrage that grieves the heart and their wicked deeds.
οὐλὴν μὲν πρῶτον τήνδε φράσαι ὀφθαλμοῖσι, / τὴν ἐν Παρνησῷ μʼ ἔλασεν σῦς λευκῷ ὀδόντι / οἰχόμενον(24.331-333), first look with your eyes at this scar, which a boar with its white tusk gave me on Parnassus, when I went there.
ὄγχνας μοι δῶκας τρισκαίδεκα καὶ δέκα μηλέας, / συκέας τεσσαράκοντʼ(24.340-341), you gave me thirteen pear trees and ten apple trees, and forty fig trees.
Restored, Laertes thanks the gods that the suitors have at last paid, but fears the men of Ithaca will come soon. Bathed and anointed, Athena gives him vigor, and he says that if he had the strength he had when he took Neriton, he would have stood beside his son against the suitors. Later, when the men of Ithaca come armed under the leadership of Eupeithes, Athena tells him to pray to her and to Zeus and throw his spear, and he strikes Eupeithes on the helmet. He rejoices to see son and grandson competing for excellence.
Ζεῦ πάτερ, ἦ ῥα ἔτʼ ἔστε θεοὶ κατὰ μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον, / εἰ ἐτεὸν μνηστῆρες ἀτάσθαλον ὕβριν ἔτισαν. / νῦν δʼ αἰνῶς δείδοικα κατὰ φρένα μὴ τάχα πάντες / ἐνθάδʼ ἐπέλθωσιν Ἰθακήσιοι, ἀγγελίας δὲ / πάντη ἐποτρύνωσι Κεφαλλήνων πολίεσσι.(24.351-355), Father Zeus, then you gods still exist on long Olympus, if the suitors truly paid for their reckless outrage! But now I greatly fear in my heart that all the men of Ithaca will soon come here and send messages everywhere to the cities of the Cephallenians.
τίς νύ μοι ἡμέρη ἥδε, θεοὶ φίλοι; ἦ μάλα χαίρω· / υἱός θʼ υἱωνός τʼ ἀρετῆς πέρι δῆριν ἔχουσιν.(24.514-515), what day is this for me, beloved gods? I rejoice greatly: son and grandson contend for excellence.
Themes Embodied
Laertes embodies the Family from the father's side: his grief is the cost of Odysseus's absence in the generation above, and the reunion in the orchard closes the line of only sons in each generation, Arcesius, Laertes, Odysseus, Telemachus. He embodies the Home, exile and return, in what the return owes to the elder and to the land, the orchard. The Identity of Odysseus passes through him at the end, when a childhood memory, the trees, convinces the father more than the mark on the body.
Laertes's grief is the proof the disguise costs: Odysseus chooses to test his father with mockery, and the price is the old man truly weeping before a lie. The poem does not condemn the choice, and both readings fit: the habit of someone who reveals himself only after testing, or the son who wants to know whether his father will recognize him after so many years.
Relationships
- Odysseus: the son he weeps for and who finds him in the orchard.
- Telemachus: the grandson he sees competing for excellence beside his father.
- Penelope: the daughter-in-law who weaves a shroud for him as a trick against the suitors.
- Eumaeus: the servant he bought as a boy and who speaks of him to the beggar.
- Athena: the goddess who gives him vigor and the order to throw the spear.
- Eurycleia: the nurse who, in Book IV, asks that he be spared.