But murderous Achilles – you gods, you choose to help Achilles.
That man without a shred of decency in his heart…
his temper can never bend and change – like some lion
going his own barbaric way, giving in to his power,
his brute force and wild pride, as down he swoops
on the flocks of men to seize his savage feast.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 24, lines 46-51. Apollo complains about Achilles’s treatment of the body of fallen Trojan hero Hector. In an epic simile he likens him to a barbaric lion, unleashing his brute force and wild pride to feast on men’s flocks.