Her mind in torment, wheeling
like some lion at bay, dreading gangs of hunters
closing their cunning ring around him for the finish.
Harried so she was, when a deep kind sleep overcame her.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 888-891. Penelope is worried about the safety of her son Telemachus, wondering if he will escape death or die at the hands of the plotting suitors. An extended simile emphasizes her feeling of helplessness, compares her to a trapped lion and the suitors to a gang of hunters hounding her.