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

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.

Homer Quotes