The Iliad Epic Similes Quotes

Right through the front he plowed like a wild boar
ramping in power up on the high mountain ridges,
scattering dogs and reckless hunters at one charge
when he wheels at bay and drives them down the glades.
So now the son of noble Telamon, dauntless Ajax
scattered the massing Trojan packs at a charge,
all who bestrode Patroclus now, high with hopes
of dragging him back to Troy to win the glory.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 323-330. Here Great Ajax is likened to a wild board scattering dogs and hunters, in this epic simile. He is defending the corpse of Patroclus to prevent the Trojans winning the glory of dragging the body back to Troy.

As when some master tanner
gives his crews the hide of a huge bull for stretching,
the beast’s skin soaked in grease and the men grab hold,
bracing round in a broad circle, tugging, stretching hard
till the skin’s oils go dripping out as the grease sinks in,
so many workers stretch the whole hide tough and taut –
so back and forth in a cramped space they tugged,
both sides dragging the corpse and hopes rising,
Trojans hoping to drag Patroclus back to Troy,
Achaeans to drag him back to the hollow ships.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 450-459. The Trojan and Achaean fighters struggle to claim the body of Patroclus. Homer compares this to the hide of a big bull being tugged and stretched by the crews of a master tanner, using an epic simile.

Yes, down like a lurid rainbow Zeus sends arching
down to mortal men from the high skies, a sign of war
or blizzard to freeze the summer’s warmth and put a halt
to men’s work on the face of the earth and harry flocks –
so shrouded round in a lurid cloud came Pallas now
and dove in the Argive ranks to fire up each man.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 624-629. Goddess Athena moves to fire up and encourage the Achaean soldiers in battle. In Homer’s epic simile, she is said to descend from heaven like the colored rainbow Zeus sends as a sign of war or blizzard.

And the lord of the battle cry could not refuse
but dragged his heels like a lion leaving sheepfolds,
bone-weary from harrying hounds and field hands.
They’ll never let him tear the rich fat from the oxen,
all night long they stand their guard but the lion craves meat,
he lunges in and in but his charges gain him nothing,
thick-and-fast from their hardy hands the javelins
rain down in his face, and waves of roaring torches –
these the big cat fears, balking for all his rage,
and at dawn he slinks away, his spirits dashed.
And so the lord of the war cry left Patroclus,
resisting all the way.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 738-749. Menelaus reluctantly moves away from the corpse of Patroclus, leaving it prey for the Trojans, after Great Ajax calls to him to get news to Achilles that his great friend Patroclus is dead. Menelaus is compared to a raging but dispirited lion slinking away, exhausted by harrying hounds and field workers, in one of Homer’s famous epic similes.

And with that the red-haired captain moved ahead
like an eagle scanning left and right, the bird men say
has the sharpest eyes of all that fly the heavens:
high as he soars he’ll never miss the racing hare
cowering down low in the dense, shaggy brush –
down on its head he swoops
and pins it fast and rips its life away. So now,
Menelaus O my King, you turned your shining eyes,
scanning the crowds of comrades front and rear,
trying to see if Nestor’s son was still alive.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 758-767. Menelaus goes off to look for Antilochus and is likened in an extended Homeric simile to a sharp-eyed eagle scanning left and right for a racing hare as he soars.

They swept in like hounds that fling themselves
at a wounded boar before young hunters reach him,
darting in for a moment, keen to rip the’ boar apart
till he wheels at bay, ramping into the pack with all his power
and the hounds cringe and bolt and scatter left and right,
And so the Trojans kept on pressing, squad on squad,
stabbing away with swords and two-edged spears
till the two called Ajax wheeled against them hard
to make a stand – and they turned white, none had nerve
to charge forth now and fight it out for the corpse.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 816-825. Trojans chase and stab at Menelaus and Meriones as they carry Patroclus’s body away, but when confronted by Great Ajax, they turn pale and lose their nerve to fight for the corpse. The Trojans are compared in Homer’s epic simile to hounds flinging themselves at a wounded boar.

So they labored to haul Patroclus from the war,
back to the beaked ships as fighting flared behind them
wild as a flash fire, sprung out of nowhere, storming down
on a teeming city, houses caving in to the big blaze
as gale-winds whip it into a roaring conflagration.
So rose the relentless din of horse and fighting men
breaking against them now as they struggled back to shore.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 826-832. Menelaus and Meriones carry away Patroclus’s body. Behind them the fighting flares, with Homer in one of his memorable epic similes comparing it to a flash fire storming over a populous city, driven by gale force winds.

Right behind them
the two Aeantes held the Trojans off as a wooded rocky ridge
stretched out across an entire plain holds back a flood,
fighting off the killer-tides of the mounting rivers,
beating them all back to swamp the lowland flats –
none of their pounding waves can make a breakthrough.
So the two Aeantes kept on beating the Trojans off.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 837-843. As Menelaus and Meriones carry away the corpse of Patroclus, Great Ajax and Little Ajax hold off the Trojans. Homer in a simile likes this to a rocky ridge acros a plain holding back a flood.

but on they came, assaulting the rear, two in the lead,
Aeneas the son of Anchises flanking glorious Hector.
Flying before them now like clouds of crows or starlings
screaming murder, seeing a falcon dive in for the kill,
the hawk that wings grim death at smaller birds –
so pursued by Aeneas and Hector Argive fighters
raced, screaming death-cries, lust for battle lost
and masses of fine armor littered both sides of the trench
as the Argives fled in fear.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 844-852. Aeneas and Hector lead the Trojan assault from the rear, as Menelaus and Meriones rescue Patroclus’s body from the battlefield. The scene is compared in an epic simile to a hawk diving in for the kill, and clouds of small birds flying off screaming murder.

As smoke goes towering up the sky from out a town
cut off on a distant island under siege…
enemies battling round it, defenders all day long
trading desperate blows from their own city walls
but soon as the sun goes down the signal fires flash,
rows of beacons blazing into the air to alert their neighbors –
if only they’ll come in ships to save them from disaster –
so now from Achilles’ head the blaze shot up the sky.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 240-247. To terrify the Trojans, goddess Athena wraps Achilles’s head up in a golden cloud, so that a fiery light blazes out from him and shoots up to the sky. Homer’s epic simile likens this to a city under siege from an enemy, where defenders in the evening light signal fires, the beacons blazing into the air to alert neighbors and summon help.

So there he rose and loosed an enormous cry
and off in the distance Pallas shrieked out too
and drove unearthly panic through the Trojans.
Piercing loud as the trumpet’s battle cry that blasts
from murderous raiding armies ringed around some city –
so piercing now the cry that broke from Aeacides.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 251-256. Achilles, taking his stand in the trench built by the Greeks, lets loose a deafening battle cry that provokes panic in the Trojan troops. Homer in his epic simile says it is as loud as the trump’s battle cry from murderous armies surrouding a city. At the same time goddess Athena also shrieks out, adding to the Trojans’ panic.

And Achilles led them now in a throbbing chant of sorrow,
laying his man-killing hands on his great friend’s chest,
convulsed with bursts of grief. Like a bearded lion
whose pride of cubs a deer-hunter has snatched away,
out of some thick woods, and back he comes, too late.
and his heart breaks but he courses after the hunter.
hot on his tracks down glen on twisting glen –
where can he find him? – gripped by piercing rage.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 367-374. Achilles mourns the death of his close friend Patroclus. Gripped by rage and in an epic simile compared to a lion whose pride of young have been snatched away by a hunter, he vows revenge against Hector.

And the crippled Smith brought all his art to bear
on a dancing circle, broad as the circle Daedalus
once laid out on Cnossos’ spacious fields
for Ariadne the girl with lustrous hair.
Here young boys and girls, beauties courted
with costly gifts of oxen, danced and danced,
linking their arms, gripping each other’s wrists.
And the girls wore robes of linen light and flowing,
the boys wore finespun tunics rubbed with a gloss of oil,
the girls were crowned with a bloom of fresh garlands.
the boys swung golden daggers hung on silver belts.
And now they would run in rings on their skilled feet,
nimbly, quick as a crouching potter spins his wheel,
palming it smoothly, giving it practice twirls
to see it run, and now they would run in rows,
in rows crisscrossing rows – rapturous dancing.
A breathless crowd stood round them struck with joy
and through them a pair of tumblers dashed and sprang,
whirling in leaping handsprings, leading on the dance.
And he forged the Ocean River’s mighty power girdling
round the outmost rim of the welded indestructible shield.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 689-709. The divine smith Hephaestus forges on his shield for Achilles a dancing circle where young boys and girls dance together and court. The images crafted on this portion of the shield are a beautiful, exquisitely detailed, extended metaphor that depicts a scene of youthful joy and festivity. Homer also uses an epic simile comparing the nimbleness of the young dancers to a potter spinning his wheel.

then hoisted the massive shield flashing far and wide
like a full round moon – and gleaming bright as the light
that reaches sailors out at sea, the flare of a watchfire
burning strong in a lonely sheepfold up some mountain slope
when the gale-winds hurl the crew that fights against them
far over the fish-swarming sea, far from loved ones –
so the gleam from Achilles’ well-wrought blazoned shield
shot up and hit the skies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 442-449. Homer describes in an epic simile how much of a gleam the shield of Achilles lets off as it lights up the skies. It is as bright as the blazing light that sailors glimpse at sea from a watchfire burning in an isolated farm in the mountains.

But over against him came Achilles rearing like some lion
out on a rampage, and a whole town of men has geared
for the hunt to cut him down: but at first he lopes along,
all contempt, till one of the fast young hunters spears him –
then…crouched for attack, his jaws gaping, over his teeth
the foam breaks out, deep in his chest the brave heart groans,
he lashes his ribs, his flanks and hips with his tail,
he whips himself into fighting-fury, eyes glaring,
hurls himself head-on – kill one of the men or die,
go down himself at the first lethal charge!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 194-203. Homer uses an epic simile to convey the power of Achilles’s rampaging charge, driven by rage, as he moves out to confront Aeneas in battle. He is inbued with the fury and power of a lion being hunted.

What do we need with wrangling, hurling insults?
Cursing each other here like a pair of nagging women
boiling over with petty, heartsick squabbles, blustering
into the streets to pelt themselves with slander
much of it true, much not. Anger stirs up lies.
I blaze for battle – your taunts can’t turn me back,
not until we’re fought it out with bronze. On with it –
taste the bite of each other’s brazen spears!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 291-298. As Aeneas and Achilles prepare to fight Achilles taunts his opponent, who makes this reply. Using an epic simile, Aeneas tells Achilles that they should stop trading insults like a pair of nagging women. He also lets the Greek hero know that he is eager for battle and Achilles’s taunts won’t turn him back.

Achilles’ spearshaft rammed him through the back
and he gasped his life away, bellowing like some bull
that chokes and grunts when the young boys drag him round
the lord of Helice’s shrine and the earthquake god
delights to see them dragging – so he bellowed now
and the man’s proud spirit left his bones behind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 457-462. Hippodamas is said in an epic simile to bellow like a bull pulled around the altar of earthquake god Poseidon, as Achilles kills him with a spear.

Achilles now
like inhuman fire raging on through the mountain gorges
splinter-dry, setting ablaze big stands of timber,
the wind swirling the huge fireball left and right –
chaos of fire – Achilles storming on with brandished spear
like a frenzied god of battle trampling all he killed
and the earth ran black with blood.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 553-559. Like raging fire, as described in an epic simile, Achilles and his rage over the death of his friend Patroclus are destroying everything in their path. Killing and trampling many Trojans, Achilles is compared to the god of war Ares as he sets out to avenge his friend’s slaying.

Thundering on,
on like oxen broad in the brow some field hand yokes
to crush white barley heaped on a well-laid threshing floor
and the grain is husked out fast by the bellowing oxen’s hoofs –
so as the great Achilles rampaged on, his sharp-hoofed stallions
trampled shields and corpses, axle under his chariot splashed
with blood, blood on the handrails sweeping round the car,
sprays of blood shooting up from the stallions’ hoofs
and churning, whirling rims – and the son of Peleus
charioteering on to seize his glory, bloody filty
splattering both strong arms, Achilles’ invincible arms.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 559-569. Achilles is consumed with rage over the death of Patroclus and rejoins the fight and slaughters a huge number of Trojans. Amid the continuing bloodletting and mounting body count of Trojans, he is also driven by the desire to win glory for himself in battle.

Spun like locusts
swarming up in the air, whipped by rushing fire,
flitting toward a river – the tireless fire blazes,
scorching them all with hard explosive blasts of flame
and beaten down in the depths the floating locusts huddle –
so at Achilles’ charge the Xanthus’ swirling currents
choked with a spate of horse and men – the river roared.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 13-19. The Trojans fleeing Achilles’s charge are caught in the River Xanthus. They are like swarms of locusts driven by fire to seek refuge in a river, as described in one of Homer’s beautiful epic similes.

As a farmhand runs a ditch from a dark spring, sluicing
the gushing stream through plants and gardens, swinging
his mattock to knock the clods out down the shoot
and the water rushes on, tearing the pebbles loose
and what began as a trickle hits a quick slope and
down it goes, outstripping the man who guides it –
so the relentless tide kept overtaking Achilles,
yes, for all his speed – gods are stronger than men.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 290-297. In one of his amazingly detailed epic similes, Homer draws an image of a farmhand digging a water channel from a spring to his plants and gardens, the water starting off as a trickle and then gathering momentum and overtaking the man. The poet relates this to the river god Xanthus’s relentless tide overtaking Achilles in the river.

Hard as the autumn North Wind hits a leveled field
just drenched in a downpour, quickly dries it off
and the farmer is glad and starts to till his soil –
so the whole plain was parched and the god of fire devoured
all the dead.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 393-397. Like the North Wind quickly dries out a farmer’s field drenched in a downpour, so god of fire Hephaestus blasts all the river with fire burning all the corpses left by Achilles, Homer tells us in one of his wonderful extended similes.

He screamed in flames, his clear currents bubbling up
like a cauldron whipped by crackling fire as it melts down
the lard of a fat swine, splattering up around the rim –
dry logs blazing under it, lashing it to the boil –
so the river burned, his clear currents seethed
and lost all will to flow.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 410-415. When the god Hephaestus uses fire to push back the river, river god Xanthus (Scamander) screams out in flames for him to stop. Homer’s exquisitely detailed simile describes how the river burns and dries up, like a cauldron over a fire melting down the lard of a fat pig.

But the distant deadly Archer volleyed back,
"God of the earthquake – you’d think me hardly sane
if I fought with you for the sake of wretched mortals…
like leaves, no sooner flourishing, full of the sun’s fire,
feeding on earth’s gifts, than they waste away and die.
Stop. Call off this skirmish of ours at once –
let these mortals fight themselves to death."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 526-532. Archer god Apollo declines to fight with the god Poseidon. Comparing mortals in an epic simile to leaves that quickly waste away and die, he says they should leave them to fight themselves to death.
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