The father in the orchard
Laertes appears first through other people’s descriptions: he no longer comes to the city, and he lives on a farm with an old servant, tending his vines and grieving for his son. When Odysseus finds him in Book XXIV, the old man is dressed in patched clothes and working in the dirt.
Odysseus does not reveal himself at once. He pretends to be a stranger who once hosted Odysseus, and Laertes weeps. Then Odysseus shows him the scar and names the trees his father gave him as a boy, and the old man faints in his arms.
Three generations
After the recognition Laertes is strengthened by Athena, and he fights in the final battle against the suitors’ relatives, killing Eupeithes with a spear. The image of the old man restored to vigour is briefly heroic, and it completes the poem’s pattern of return: father, son, and grandson stand together.
Laertes’ reunion is the last of the Odyssey’s recognitions and the one that costs the least. It is a quiet ending to the long story of a man trying to get home, and it makes the household whole again.
Relations
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The following entries mention “Laertes”.