Previous
Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Book 2
Explanation and Analysis—Women and Boys:
In the Iliad, Homer uses a motif in which he gives the impression that many of the male warriors fear a reputation of cowardice almost more than they fear death. Agamemnon plays into this when he tries to spur on his fighters by telling them, "Now be men, my friends! Courage, come, take heart! Dread what comrades say of you here in bloody combat!" To evoke the cowardice they so shun, the characters often use similes in which they compare each other to women and boys.
In Book 2, when the soldiers fail Agamemnon's test of courage, Odysseus uses a simile of this kind to express his contempt.
[...] But look at them now,
like green, defenseless boys or widowed women
whimpering to each other, wailing to journey back.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Mobilization:
The Iliad features a number of set similes that Homer repeats with slight variations. Often, he compares events taking place in the war to natural phenomena or agricultural scenes. In Book 2, to initiate the military action of the narrative, he compares the forces on the ground to swarming bees, rushing water, flocks of birds, and swarming flies—and more. Through these similes, he illustrates the war's mass movement and force.
After Agamemnon describes the dream that Zeus sent him, the other kings follow him. Homer uses a simile to capture the movement of the forces that follow the kings:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] Rank and file
streamed behind and rushed like swarms of bees
pouring out of a rocky hollow, burst on endless burst,
bunched in clusters seething over the first spring blooms,
dark hordes swirling into the air, this way, that way—
Related Themes:
Book 3
Explanation and Analysis—Confrontation:
In Book 3, Homer uses similes to illustrate the initial confrontation between Menelaus and Paris. Mocking Paris for his elegance, these comparisons suggest that Paris's good looks and flair make him a cowardly, unworthy soldier.
The confrontation begins with Paris springing from the Trojan forward ranks, challenging the Argives with an air of grace and vigor. He's "lithe, magnificent as a god" and has "the skin of a leopard slung across his shoulders, a reflex bow at his back and battle-sword at hip." However, this image is swiftly undermined when Menelaus appears on the scene and Paris recoils from the scene:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Soon as the warrior Menelaus marked him,
Paris parading there with his big loping strides,
flaunting before the troops, Atrides thrilled
like a lion lighting on some handsome carcass,
lucky to find an antlered stag or wild goat
just as hunger strikes—he rips it, bolts it down,
even with running dogs and lusty hunters rushing him.
Related Themes:
Book 6
Explanation and Analysis—Confrontation:
In Book 3, Homer uses similes to illustrate the initial confrontation between Menelaus and Paris. Mocking Paris for his elegance, these comparisons suggest that Paris's good looks and flair make him a cowardly, unworthy soldier.
The confrontation begins with Paris springing from the Trojan forward ranks, challenging the Argives with an air of grace and vigor. He's "lithe, magnificent as a god" and has "the skin of a leopard slung across his shoulders, a reflex bow at his back and battle-sword at hip." However, this image is swiftly undermined when Menelaus appears on the scene and Paris recoils from the scene:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Soon as the warrior Menelaus marked him,
Paris parading there with his big loping strides,
flaunting before the troops, Atrides thrilled
like a lion lighting on some handsome carcass,
lucky to find an antlered stag or wild goat
just as hunger strikes—he rips it, bolts it down,
even with running dogs and lusty hunters rushing him.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Generations of Leaves:
When Diomedes and Glaucus encounter each other on the battlefield in Book 6, Diomedes asks about Glaucus's birth to determine whether he's immortal. With a simile, Glaucus reflects on the brevity and renewal that underpin human life:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.
Related Themes:
Book 8
Explanation and Analysis—Violence as Everyday Life:
In the Iliad, Homer crafts a number of surprising, seemingly contradictory similes in which he compares grim violence to budding flowers and familiar images from everyday life. Through these similes, Homer contrasts wartime and peacetime, illustrating what's at stake in war's mass destruction.
In Book 8, when Teucer kills Gorgythion, Homer compares Gorgythion to a flower bursting with seeds:
Unlock with LitCharts A+As a garden poppy, burst into red bloom, bends,
drooping its head to one side, weighed down
by its full seeds and a sudden spring shower,
so Gorgythion’s head fell limp over one shoulder,
weighed down by his helmet.
Related Themes:
Book 11
Explanation and Analysis—The Hunt:
In many of the poem's battle scenes, Homer often draws on hunting similes. Most often, he compares the soldiers to lions and boars attacking shepherds or other animals, but sometimes he compares them to human hunters. These repeated similes evoke the enduring force and violence of the war.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Book 16
Explanation and Analysis—Patroclus and the Sea:
In Book 16, during Patroclus's rampage, Homer details many of his clashes and kills. In one of these scenes, he uses imagery and a simile to liken Patroclus to a fisherman. In another, he uses another sea-related metaphor to describe the movements of one of Patroclus's victims.
Towards the middle of the book, Homer describes Patroclus pulling the Trojan warrior Thestor out of his chariot as though he were pulling a fish out of the sea:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Patroclus rising beside him stabbed his right jawbone,
ramming the spearhead square between his teeth so hard
he hooked him by that spearhead over the chariot-rail,
hoisted, dragged the Trojan out as an angler perched
on a jutting rock ledge drags some fish from the sea,
some noble catch, with line and glittering bronze hook.
So with the spear Patroclus gaffed him off his car,
his mouth gaping round the glittering point
and flipped him down facefirst,
dead as he fell, his life breath blown away.
Related Themes:
