Laertes. Mythical King of Ithaca and father of Ulysses. Laertes took part in the Calydonian hunt, and in the expedition of the Argonauts. He was still alive when Ulysses returned to Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. During the absence of Ulysses he had withdrawn to the country in grief and bowed with age, and Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, is represented as weaving the shroud of her father-in-law, the work with which she put aside her many suitors.

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