Nestor stood there, stunned.
As a huge ground swell boils up on the open seas,
soundless, foreboding a hurricane’s howling onslaught,
rearing but never rolling back or forth…all adrift
till one steady, decisive blast comes down from Zeus –
so the old man thrashed things out, torn two ways,
to join his Argives fast with chariot-teams
or go and find Agamemnon lord of armies.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 14, lines 18-25. The Greek elder Nestor is stunned and uncertain what to do as the Achaeans fall back, having suffered many losses. An epic simile compares his uncertainty to a huge swell boiling up on the sea, but having no direction, waiting for a sharp blast to come down from Zeus.