But he did find
his father, alone, on that well-worked plot,
spading round a sapling – clad in filthy rags,
in a patched, unseemly shirt, and round his shins
he had some oxhide leggings strapped, patched too,
to keep from getting scraped, and gloves on his hands
to fight against the thorns, and on his head
he wore a goatskin skullcap
to cultivate his misery that much more…
Long-enduring Odysseus, catching sight of him now –
a man worn down with years, his heart racked with sorrow –
halted under a branching pear-tree, paused and wept.
Debating, head and heart, what should he do now?
Kiss and embrace his father, pour out the long tale –
how he had made the journey home to native land –
or probe him first and test him every way?
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 24, lines 248-263. Odysseus sees his father for the first time in two decades. The years have not been good to Laertes. He has aged prematurely and is weighed down with sorrow over his lost son. When Odysseus spots him working in dirty rags in his vineyard, Odysseus halts under a pear tree and weeps for his father. Odysseus wavers between embracing Laertes and telling him of his journey, or testing him first. The idea that Odysseus wants to test his aged father, perhaps to find out if he is still loyal to him, seems a bit harsh.