How we cite our quotes: (Book.Line)
Quote #21
(Eumaios:) "Shall I on the same errand go with the news to wretched Laertes, who while he so greatly grieved for Odysseus yet would look after his farm and with the thralls in his household would eat and drink, whenever the spirit was urgent with him; but now, since you went away in the ship to Pylos, they say he has not eaten in this way, nor drunk anything, nor looked to his farm, but always in lamentation and mourning sits grieving, and the flesh on his bones is wasting from him." (16.137-145)
Seriously, is anyone happy in this story? Laertes is so bummed that Odysseus is missing that he can't even get out of bed. (At least Penelope kept it together enough to weave him a shroud.)
Quote #22
(Penelope:) 'How I wish chaste Artemis would give me a death so soft, and now, so I would not go on in my heart grieving all my life, and longing for love of a husband excellent in every virtue, since he stood out among the Achaians.' (18.202-205)
You have to admit, it'd be pretty hard to resign yourself to remarrying if your first husband was the godlike Odysseus.
Quote #23
He spoke, and the black cloud of sorrow closed on Laertes. In both hands he caught up the grimy dust and poured it over his face and grizzled head, groaning incessantly. The spirit rose up in Odysseus, and now in his nostrils there was a shock of bitter force as he looked on his father. He sprang to him and embraced and kissed and then said to him: 'Father, I am he, the man you ask about.' (24.315-321)
Proper burial was super important to the Ancient Greeks including ritualized hair-tearing and dust-bathing. It may seem over the top to us, but Laertes' grief just helps us see what a good dad he is.