"Νήπιος, οὐδὲ τὸ οἶδε κατὰ φρένα Τυδέος υἱὸς
Ὅττι μάλ' οὐ δηναιὸς, ὃς ἀθανάτοισι μάχοιτο,
Οὐδέ τί μιν παῖδες ποτὶ γούνασι παππάζουσιν,
Ἐλθόντ' ἐκ πολέμοιο καὶ αἰνῆς δηϊοτῆτος."
"The son of Tydeus is foolish and rash, nor is aware that he who fights with the immortals is not long-lived, and that no children, as he returns from war and strife, gather round his knees to call him father."
The idea of children saluting their parent at his knees, has been adopted, and accompanied with various additions, by several subsequent authors. Among the writers in Homer's language, however, we find no imitation of it, unless the following lines of Callimachus can be regarded as taken from it:
"Πατρὸς ἐφεζομένη γονάτεσσι
Παῖς ἔτι κουρίζουσα, τάδε προσέειπε γονῆα,
Δός μοι παρθενίην αἰώνιον, ἄππα, φυλάσσειν."
"She (Diana), yet a child, sitting sportively on the knees of her father, said to him, Allow me, dear parent, to preserve a perpetual virginity."