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

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.

Homer Quotes