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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Book 22
Explanation and Analysis—Necks in the Noose:
The poem uses a metaphor that compares the suitors gathered in the home of Odysseus to men who have nooses around their necks. When Odysseus begins his assault on the suitors by shooting an arrow through the neck of Antinous, the other suitors respond with panic and denial:
They wheeled on Odysseus, lashing out in fury:
“Stranger, shooting at men will cost your life!”
“Your game is over—you, you’ve shot your last!”
“You’ll never escape your own headlong death!”
“You killed the best in Ithaca —our fine prince!”
“Vultures will eat your corpse!”
Groping, frantic —
each one persuading himself the guest had killed
the man by chance. Poor fools, blind to the fact
that all their necks were in the noose, their doom sealed.
Related Themes:
Book 23
Explanation and Analysis—Heart of Iron:
In a passage containing several similes and metaphors, the poem describes Odysseus's dissatisfaction with his frosty and suspicious reception by his wife Penelope upon returning to Ithaca:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He stepped from his bath, glistening like a god,
and back he went to the seat that he had left
and facing his wife, declared,
“Strange woman! So hard—the gods of Olympus
made you harder than any other woman in the world!
What other wife could have a spirit so unbending?
Holding back from her husband, home at last for her
after bearing twenty years of brutal struggle.
Come, nurse, make me a bed, I’ll sleep alone.
She has a heart of iron in her breast.”
Related Themes:
