“As he spoke he sat down, and Telemachus threw his arms about his father and wept. They were both so much moved that they cried aloud like eagles or vultures with crooked talons that have been robbed of their half fledged young by peasants.”
~ The Odyssey - Book XVI (Samuel Butler Translation. p274)
In book 16, Ulysses and his son Telemachus finally meet. When Ulysses left for the war twenty years ago, Telemachus was just a newborn baby. Ulysses has been thinking about his son all along, and Telemachus has grown up hearing valiant stories about his father. He has been pining and wishing for his father to return during all the misfortunes he encountered in his life, especially with suitors exerting their authority and taking things from his estate.
The novel brilliantly sets the anticipation high for this meeting, and when they finally meet, the overwhelming happiness is experienced not only by the father and son but also by the readers. There are so many real-life stories and fictional works around reunions. A couple of my favorite novels - Hardy’s ‘The Return of the Native’ and Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ talk about someone’s return. Clym returns from Paris in the former, and Dr. Manette is reunited with his daughter Lucie after 18 years in prison in the latter. I’m also reminded of the short song Long Long Ago’ from Suzuki Violin Book 1. When someone returns, they are usually a changed personality, a different person from the person others remember them to be.