Father and Son Reunite

17He spoke, and a dark cloud of sorrow came
Over Laertes. With both hands he grasped
The yellow dust, and over his white head
Shed it with piteous groans. Odysseus felt
His heart within him melted; the hot breath
Rushed through his nostrils as he looked upon
His well-beloved father, and he sprang
And kissed and clasped him in his arms, and said: —

18“Nay, I am he, my father; I myself
Am he of whom you ask. I am come
To mine own country in the twentieth year.
But calm yourself, refrain from tears, and grieve
No more, and let me tell you, in a word,
I have slain all the suitors in my halls,
And so avenged their insolence and crimes.”

19And then Laertes spoke again, and said:
“If now you be Odysseus, my lost son,
Give some plain token, that I may believe.”

20Odysseus, the sagacious, answered thus:
“First, then, behold with your own eyes the scar
Which once the white tusk of a forest boar
Inflicted on Parnassus, when I made
The journey thither, by your own command,
And by my gracious mother’s, to receive
Gifts which her father, King Autolycus,
Once promised, when he came to Ithaca.
And listen to me further; let me name
The trees which in your well-tilled orchard grounds
You gave me; I asked them all of you,
When by your side I trod the garden walks,
A little boy. We went among the trees,
And you did name them. Of the pear thirteen,
And of the apple ten you gave me,
And forty fig-trees; and you did engage
To give me fifty rows of vines, each row
Of growth to feed the winepress. Grapes are there
Of every flavor when the hours of Zeus
Shall nurse them into ripeness from on high.”

21He spoke; a trembling seized the old man’s heart
And knees, as he perceived how true were all
The tokens which Odysseus gave. He threw
Round his dear son his arms. The hardy chief,
Odysseus, drew him fainting to his heart.
But when the old man’s strength revived, and calm
Came over his spirit, thus he spoke again: —