Laertes

Laertes, father of Odysseus, does not appear in person until the last book of the Odyssey, but we are told about him by others. Athene, disguised as Mentes, speaks of the old hero who in his great grief lives away from the city on a farm and is cared for by an old servant woman who gives him food and drink when weariness seizes him as he slowly walks about in the vineyard. ¹ But he still has at least some power if he will use it. For Odysseus, leaving for Troy, told Mentor ‘to obey the old man (that is, Laertes) and to keep everything safe’. ² Also, Penelope proposes to send a message to Laertes for advice when she fears for Telemachus’ life. ³ In the Underworld, Anticleia describes to Odysseus Laertes’ life on the farm: in the winter he sleeps with the slaves in the dust beside the fire, in the summer on piled-up leaves anywhere in the vineyard. ‘There he lies grieving, and he increases his great sorrow in his breast longing for your return.’ ⁴ That is what Anticleia says who herself died from longing for Odysseus. ⁵ But up to the time that Telemachus left for his journey to Pylus and Sparta, Laertes had in spite of his great grief for Odysseus been active supervising the work on the farm and drinking and eating with the slaves in the house whenever he wanted to. This is what Eumaeus reports to Telemachus back from his journey. But since Telemachus left, the old man—so people say—has not yet had any food or drink, nor does he see to the work, but with groaning and sighing he sits lamenting, and his skin is wasting away round his bones. ⁶ This is the picture of an old man who has lost all hope, since his lineage threatens to be or perhaps is already extinguished; he is close to death, from despair more than from old age. This is how Odysseus finds his father.