Laertes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In Greek mythology, Laërtes was the son of Arcesius and Chalcomedusa. He was the father of Odysseus (who was thus called Laertiades, Λαερτιάδης) and Ctimene by his wife Anticlea, daughter of the thief Autolycus. Laërtes was an Argonaut and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. Laërtes's title was King of the Cephallenians, which he presumably inherited from his father Arcesius and grandfather Cephalus. His realm included Ithaca and surrounding islands, and perhaps even the neighboring part of the mainland of other Greek city-states.
Another account says that Laërtes was not Odysseus's true father; rather, it was Sisyphus, who had seduced Anticlea.
It was Laërtes who trained Odysseus in husbandry. After Odysseus and his son Telemachus routed the suitors who had been courting Penelope, Odysseus's wife, a number of the suitors' surviving relatives confronted them. Athena infused vigour into Laërtes, so he could help Odysseus by killing Eupeithes, father of Antinous. In Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Odyssey, Odysseus refers to him as King Allwoes.
See also
- Laertes is a character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.
- Laertes was the name of a character in Hamlet.
- There is also an ancient Greek city called Laertes, currently in Antalya, Turkey.
