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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
Key Examples in The Odyssey
Book 1
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Stranger:
After defending Odysseus at an assembly of the gods, Athena dons her winged sandals and travels to Ithaca, where Odysseus's family has long awaited his return. When she arrives in Ithaca, she disguises herself as an old man, and the poem uses sharp imagery and a simile that describes her as being "like a stranger" to the whole world:
She seized the rugged spear tipped with a bronze point —
weighted, heavy, the massive shaft she wields to break the lines
of heroes the mighty Father’s daughter storms against.
And down she swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks
and lit on Ithaca, standing tall at Odysseus’ gates,
the threshold of his court. Gripping her bronze spear,
she looked for all the world like a stranger now.
Related Themes:
Book 2
Explanation and Analysis—Handsome as a God :
In a simile, the poem describes Telemachus as appearing "handsome as a god" after he meets with Athena in Ithaca:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more
the true son of Odysseus sprang from bed and dressed,
over his shoulder he slung his well-honed sword,
fastened rawhide sandals under his smooth feet
and stepped from his bedroom, handsome as a god.
At once he ordered heralds to cry out loud and clear
and summon the flowing-haired Achaeans to full assembly.
Their cries rang out. The people filed in quickly.
When they’d grouped, crowding the meeting grounds [...]
Book 4
Explanation and Analysis—Newborn Sucklings:
In Sparta, Telemachus informs Menelaus and his court of the insulting behavior of the suitors in Ithaca. Outraged on behalf of Odysseus, Menelaus uses a simile that compares Odysseus to a dangerous lion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“How shameful!”
the red-haired king burst out in anger. “That’s the bed
of a brave man of war they’d like to crawl inside,
those spineless, craven cowards!
Weak as the doe that beds down her fawns
in a mighty lion’s den —her newborn sucklings —
then trails off to the mountain spurs and grassy bends
to graze her fill, but back the lion comes to his own lair
and the master deals both fawns a ghastly bloody death,
just what Odysseus will deal that mob—ghastly death.
Related Themes:
Book 6
Explanation and Analysis—Athena as Craftsman:
After Odysseus narrowly survives his difficult voyage from Calypso's island with the aid of the goddesses Ino and Athena, he washes up, exhausted and naked, on the beach of a Phaecian city. There, he is found by the princess Nausicaa and her maids. In this passage, the poem uses several similes in describing the effects of Athena's magic on Odysseus's appearance:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And then, once he had bathed all over, rubbed in oil
and donned the clothes the virgin princess gave him,
Zeus’s daughter Athena made him taller to all eyes,
his build more massive now, and down from his brow
she ran his curls like thick hyacinth clusters
full of blooms. As a master craftsman washes
gold over beaten silver — a man the god of fire
and Queen Athena trained in every fine technique —
and finishes off his latest effort, handsome work,
so she lavished splendor over his head and shoulders now.
Related Themes:
Book 11
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Shadow:
In a speech saturated with pathos, Odysseus recounts meeting his deceased mother, Anticleia, in the afterlife. Earlier, Odysseus saw his mother's shade in Hades but made the difficult decision to push her away in order to closely follow Circe's instructions. After he receives a prophecy and warning from Tiresias, however, Odysseus searches for his mother, who explains the sad circumstances of her death:
Unlock with LitCharts A+'No, it was my longing for you, my shining Odysseus —
you and your quickness, you and your gentle ways —
that tore away my life that had been sweet.’
And I, my mind in turmoil, how I longed
to embrace my mother’s spirit, dead as she was!
Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream.
Related Themes:
Book 12
Explanation and Analysis—Scylla:
In an epic simile, the poem compares the monstrous Scylla to an "angler," or a person who fishes with a line and a hook:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Just as an angler poised on a jutting rock
flings his treacherous bait in the offshore swell,
whips his long rod —hook sheathed in an oxhorn lure —
and whisks up little fish he flips on the beach-break,
writhing, gasping out their lives . . . so now they writhed, [...]
screaming out, flinging their arms toward me,
lost in that mortal struggle . . .
Of all the pitiful things I’ve had to witness,
suffering, searching out the pathways of the sea,
this wrenched my heart the most.
Related Themes:
Book 13
Explanation and Analysis—Like a God:
In a scene containing high dramatic irony, Odysseus returns to Ithaca and greets the first person he sees, vowing to "pray" to her "like a god." That woman, he later learns, is Athena herself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Odysseus, overjoyed at the sight, went up to meet her,
joining her now with salutations on the wing:
“Greetings, friend! Since you are the first
I’ve come on in this harbor, treat me kindly —
no cruelty, please. Save these treasures,
save me too. I pray to you like a god,
I fall before your knees and ask your mercy!
And tell me this for a fact —I need to know —
where on earth am I? what land? who lives here?"
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:
