"For many years, poor man,
heartsick for his son, he’d always keep an eye
on the farm and take his meals with the hired hands
whenever he felt the urge to. Now, from the day
you sailed away to Pylos, not a sip or a bite
he’s touched, they say, not as he did before,
and his eyes are shut to all the farmyard labors.
Huddled over, groaning in grief and tears,
he wastes away – the man’s all skin and bones."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 16, lines 157-165. Eumaeus tells Telemachus how Laertes has been mourning the loss of his son Odysseus and now Telemachus. He is wasting away on his farm, refusing to eat.