squadrons clashed with shattering war cries rising.
Not so loud the breakers bellowing out against the shore,
driven in from the open sea by the North Wind’s brutal blast,
not so loud the roar of fire whipped to a crackling blaze
rampaging into a mountain gorge raging up through timber
not so loud the gale that howls in the leafy crowns of oaks
when it hits its pitch of fury tearing branches down –
Nothing so loud as cries of Trojans, cries of Achaeans,
terrible war cries, armies storming against each other.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 14, lines 466-474. As Hector drives the Trojans against the Greeks by the Achaean ships, we get this description of the clash of armies and the terrible cries of war. In a brilliant extended simile, Homer says the cries are louder than the roar of breakers driven against the shore by the North Wind, a rampaging fire in a mountain gorge, or howling gales in the crown of oak trees.