"But tell me, please – in no uncertain terms –
how many years ago did you host the man,
that unfortunate guest of yours, my son…
there was a son, or was he all a dream?
That most unlucky man, whom now, I fear,
far from his own soil and those he loves,
the fish have swallowed down on the high seas
or birds and beasts on land have made their meal."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 23, lines 319-326. Laertes still does not recognize his son, who has been telling him that he met and befriended Odysseus. A doubting Laertes doesn’t believe that Odysseus is alive and wonders if he ever existed – "there was a son, or was he all a dream." He believes that his son is dead and never returning home. With a twist of irony, what Laertes doesn’t realize, but the reader is fully aware, is that the "stranger" he is saying all this to is his son.