"If I’d been young in arms
last night in our house with harness on my back,
standing beside you, fighting off the suitors,
how many I would have cut the knees from under –
the heart inside you would have leapt for joy!"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 24, 420-424. Laertes wishes that he had been a young warrior and fought side by side with Odysseus against the suitors. He believes that he would have killed many. Laertes goes on to kill Antinous’ father Eupithes before peace is established in Ithaca, and so plays his part in the fight.