The Iliad Epic Similes Quotes

he turned tail and broke like a rogue beast
that’s done some serious damage, mauled a dog to death
or a herdsman tending flocks, and takes to his heels
before the gangs of men can group and go against him.
So Antilochus turned and ran.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 679-683. Antilochus cannot hold his ground against Hector, so he turns tail and runs from the Trojan warrior. An epic simile likens his flight to a rogue beast that flees after mauling a dog to death or attacking a herdsman tending flocks.

They closed ranks, they packed like a stone wall,
a granite cliff that towers against the churning surf,
standing up to the screaming winds, their sudden assaults
and the breaking waves they spawn that crash against its base –
so the Danaans stood the Trojan onslaught, rock-solid
and never flinched in fear.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 717-722. Heroically holding their line by their ships against the Trojan onslaught, the Achaeans are compared in an epic simile to a granite cliff standing up to the churning suft and roaring winds.

But Hector all afire,
blazing head to foot, charged at their main force,
bursting down as a wave bursts down on a veering ship,
down from under the clouds it batters, bred by gale-winds –
showers of foam overwhelm the hull, blot it all from sight,
the hurricane’s killing blast thundering into the sails
and scudding clear of death by the skin of their teeth
the sailors quake, their hearts race on with terror –
so the Achaeans’ courage quaked.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 722-730. Hector charges the main force of the Achaeans at their ships. This is dramatically described in an epic simile likening his assault to a great storm wave battering a ship where terrified sailors fear for their lives.

And Hector lunged again
like a murderous lion mad for kills, charging cattle
grazing across the flats of a broad marshy pasture,
flocks by the hundred led by an unskilled herdsman
helpless to keep the marauder off a longhorn heifer –
no fighting that bloody slaughter – all he can do
is keep pace with the lead or straggling heads,
leaving the center free for the big cat’s pounce
and it eats a heifer raw as the rest stampede away.
And so the Achaeans stampeded now, unearthly terror,
all of them routed now by Father Zeus and Hector.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 730-740. Hector is likened to a murderous lion attacking cattle and eating a heifer raw in an extended simile describing his charge at the Achaean troops. He routs the Greeks with the help of Zeus.

Ajax skilled as a show-rider, a virtuoso horseman
who picks from the herd four stallions, yokes them tight
and galloping off the plain comes racing toward a large city,
over a trafficked road and the crowds gaze in wonder,
men and women watching, as sure-footed, never a slip,
the rider keeps on leaping, swinging from back to back
and the pounding team flies on. So Ajax swung now,
leaping from deck to deck on the fast trim ships,
ranging with huge strides as his voice hit the skies,
keeping up a terrific bellowing, calling Argives on
to defend the ships and shelters.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 789-799. Great Ajax defends the Achaean ships, leaping from deck to deck, shouting at the soldiers to defend the ships and huts. An epic simile describes him as like a virtuoso horseman driving a team of four galloping stallions and leaping from one horse to another with never a slip.

And Hector too –
how could he hold back with his massing, armored Trojans?
Now like a flashing eagle swooping down on bird-flocks,
winged thousands feeding, swarming a river’s banks,
geese, cranes or swans with their long lancing necks –
so swooping Hector went headfirst at a warship,
charged its purple prow, and Zeus behind him
thrust him on with his mighty, deathless hand,
urging the soldiers on who crowded Hector’s back.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 799-807. Hector is compared to an eagle swooping down on bird flocks in an epic simile describing how he moves against Great Ajax and the Achaean ships. He gets support from the god Zeus, who urges him and his soldiers on.

Why in tears, Patroclus?
Like a girl, a baby running after her mother,
begging to be picked up, and she tugs her skirts,
holding her back as she tries to hurry off – all tears,
fawning up at her she takes her in her arms…
That’s how you look, Patroclus, streaming live tears.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 7-12. When Patroclus returns to Achilles’s camp, crying with pity over the Achaean losses, Achilles says this to him. Patroclus is likened in an epic simile to a baby girl running after her mother tugging her skirts, all tears.

Prince Achilles, ranging his ranks of Myrmidons,
arrayed them along the shelters, all in armor.
Hungry as wolves that rend and bolt raw flesh,
hearts filled with battle-frenzy that never dies –
off on the cliffs, ripping apart some big antlered stag
they gorge on the kill till all their jaws drip red with blood,
then down in a pack they lope to a pooling, dark spring,
their lean sharp tongues lapping the water’s surface,
belching bloody meat, but the fury, never shaken,
builds inside their chests though their glutted bellies burst –
so wild the Myrmidon captains, Myrmidon field commanders
swarming round Achilles’ dauntless friend-in-arms.
And there in the midst Achilles stood like the god of war,
urging his charioteers and fighters bracing shields.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 185-198. Achilles prepares his Myrmidons, the soldiers he commands, for battle. They are said in an epic simile to be hungry as flesh-eating wolves that kill and gorge on a great antlered stag. Achilles himself is compared to god of war Ares standing in their midst, urging them on.

tight as a mason packs a good stone wall,
blocks on granite blocks for a storied house
that fights the ripping winds – crammed so close
the crested helmets, the war-shields bulging, jutting
buckler-to-buckler, helm-to-helm, man-to-man massed tight
and the horsehair crests on glittering helmet horns brushed
as they tossed their head the battalions bulked so dense.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 251-256. The Myrmidons join the battle. They gather in a close formation, tight as a mason packs a good stone wall with granite blocks for a house, Homer tells us in one of his descriptive epic similes.

Myrmidons,
battalions ranged in armor with greathearted Patroclus,
moving out now, the fury bursting inside them,
suddenly charged the Trojans –
they swarmed forth like wasps from a roadside nest
when boys have made it their sport to set them seething,
day after day tormenting them round their wayside hive –
idiot boys! they make a menace for every man in sight.
Any innocent traveler passing them on that road
can stir them accidentally – up in arms in a flash,
all in a swarm come pouring, each one raging down
to fight for home and children –
Such frenzy seized their hearts,
Myrmidons pouring out of the ships, ceaseless shouts rising.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 302-314. The image of a swarm of angry wasps pouring from their nest and raging down is used in an extended simile to describe the Myrmidons and Patroclus attacking the Trojans by the ships.

an Argive breakthrough –
bright as the moment Zeus the lord of lightning moves
from a craggy mountain ridge a storm cloud massing dense
and all the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs
and the steep ravines and down from the high heavens bursts
the boundless bright air…So now the Argives
drove the ravening fire clear of the warships,
winning a little breathing room, not much,
no real halt to the buck-and-rush of battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 348-356. The Achaeans manage to achieve a breakthrough in the fighting and save their ships from burning. An image of how the god Zeus shifts a storm cloud to reveal the peaks, cliffs and ravines, and the huge bright sky breaks open, is used to describe the breakthrough.

And all in an onrush dark as autumn days
when the whole earth flattens black beneath a gale,
when Zeus flings down his pelting, punishing rains –
up in arms, furious, storming against those men
who brawl in the courts and render crooked judgments,
men who throw all rights to the winds with no regard
for the vengeful eyes of the gods – so all their rivers
crest into flood spate, ravines overflowing cut the hilltops
off into lonely islands, the roaring flood tide rolling down
to the storm-torn sea, headlong down from the foothills
washes away the good plowed work of men –
Rampaging so,
the gasping Trojan war-teams hurtled on.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 455-466. An epic simile describes the panic of the Trojan war horses as the Achaeans charge. Homer in one of his wonderful extended similes likens this to an angry Zeus sending down punishing rains and floods on wrongdoers who have no regard for the gods.

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 face first
dead as he fell, his life breath blown away.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 480-489. The brutal barbarity of war is graphically and matter-of-factly presented by Homer, and indeed accepted as a normal part of life by the characters in his epic poem. In this passage the epic simile of an angler and his "noble catch" is used by the poet to describe the gruesome spearing and slaying of the Trojan Thestor by Patroclus.

He struck him right where the midriff packs the pounding heart
and down Sarpedon fell as an oak or white poplar falls
or towering pine that shipwrights up on a mountain
hew down with whetted axes for sturdy ship timber –
so he stretched in front of his team and chariot,
sprawled and roaring, clawing the bloody dust.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 569-574. Sarpedon, struck and killed by Patroclus’s spear, is described in an epic simile as falling down like a big tree axed by shipwrights for ship timber.

Grief for his dead companion seized Patroclus now,
he tore through frontline fighters swift as a hawk
diving to scatter crows and fear-struck starlings –
straight at the Lycians, Patroclus O my rider,
straight at the pressing Trojan ranks you swooped,
enraged at your comrade’s death!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 679-684. In a bid to avenge his dead companion Epeigeus, an enraged Patroclus tears through the Lycians and Trojan ranks. Homer in one of his many epic similes compares Patroclus to a hawk diving through crows and frightened starlings.

And loud as the roar goes up
when men cut timber deep in the mountain glades
and the pounding din of axes echoes miles away –
so the pound and thud of blows came rising up
from the broad earth, from the trampled paths of war
and the bronze shields and tough plied hides struck hard
as the swords and two-edged spearheads stabbed against them.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 735-741. Homer is master of the epic simile, like this one comparing the noise of battle combat to the roar that goes up when men with pounding axes cut timber in the mountain glade.

As the East and South Winds fight in killer-squalls
deep in a mountain valley thrashing stands of timber,
oak and ash and cornel with bark stretched taut and hard
and they whip their long sharp branches against each other,
a deafening roar goes up, the splintered timber crashing –
so Achaeans and Trojans crashed,
hacking into each other.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 889-895. The Trojan and Achaean forces fight by the corpse of Hector’s half-brother Cebriones. They are compared to the East and South Winds challenging one another in mountain forests.

Down he crashed – horror gripped the Achaean armies.
As when some lion overpowers a tireless wild boar
up on a mountain summit, battling in all their fury
over a little spring of water, both beasts craving
to slake their thirst, but the lion beats him down
with sheer brute force as the boar fights for breath –
so now with a close thrust Hector the son of Priam
tore the life from the fighting son of Menoetius,
from Patroclus who had killed so many men in war.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 958-966. The Achaean armies are horrified as Hector delivers the fatal blow to Patroclus, spearing him deep in the bowels and out through his back. The image of a lion overpowering a wild boat on a mountain summit is used to describe the slaying in an epic simile.

There he lay
like an olive slip a farmer rears to strength
on a lonely hilltop, drenching it down with water,
a fine young stripling tree, and the winds stir it softly,
rustling from every side, and it bursts with silver shoots –
then suddenly out of nowhere a wind in gale force comes storming,
rips it out of its trench, stretches it out on the earth –
so Panthous’ stripling son lay sprawled in death,
Euphorbus who hurled the strong ashen spear…
Menelaus cut him down.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 59-68. Menelaus kills Euphorbus, by piercing him in the neck with a lance. An epic simile describes the Trojan being cut down like a young stripling tree ripped out of the earth by a gale force wind.

Menelaus fierce as a mountain lion sure of his power,
seizing the choicest head from a good grazing herd.
First he cracks its neck, clamped in his huge jaws,
mauling the kill then down in gulps he bolts it,
blood and guts, and around him dogs and shepherds
raise a fierce din but they keep their distance,
lacking nerve to go in and take the lion on –
the fear that grips their spirit makes them blanch.
So now not a single Trojan fighter had the spine
to go and face Atrides tensing in all his strength.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 69-78. The Trojans are afraid of the fierce warrior Menelaus, who in one of Homer’s extended similes is compared to a mountain lion seizing the choicest head from the herd, breaking its neck and gorging on its blood and entrails.

And Atrides gave ground, he left the corpse
but kept on turning round to face an attack –
like a great bearded lion the dogs and field hands
drive back from the folds with spears and sharp cries
and the brave, battling heart in his chest freezes tight
and the big cat, all reluctance, pulls back from the sheds.
So the red-haired captain backed away from Patroclus’ corpse.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 124-130. Menelaus gives ground to the waves of Trojan soldiers and backs away from the corpse of Patroclus. He is likened in Homer’s extended simile to a big bearded lion being driven back by dogs and field hands with spears.

But Ajax,
shielding Patroclus round with his broad buckler,
stood fast now like a lion cornered round his young
when hunters cross him, leading his cubs through wood –
he ramps in all the pride of his power, bristling strength,
the heavy folds of his forehead frowning down his eyes.
So Ajax stood his ground over brave Patroclus now.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 151-157. In this epic simile Great Ajax is compared to a lion protecting its young from hunters, as he defends the body of Patroclus from the Trojans.

Down in a mass the Trojans pounded – Hector led them in,
charging in as a heavy surf roars in against the rip
at a river’s mouth, swelled with rains from Zeus,
and on either side the jutting headlands bellow back
at the booming sea with matching thunder – in they came,
the Trojans roaring in.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 298-303. Hector leads the Trojan attack against the Achaeans guarding the body of Patroclus. An epic simile compares the onslaught of the Trojan army to a huge wave roaring into the mouth of a river swelled by rains from the god Zeus.
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