"How this pot-bellied pig runs off at the mouth –
like an old crone at her oven!
Well I’ve got a knock-out blow in store for him –
I’ll batter the tramp with both fists, crack every tooth
from his jaws, I’ll litter the ground with teeth
like a rogue sow’s, punished for rooting corn!
Belt up – so the lords can see us fight it out.
How can you beat a champion half your age?"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 18, lines 31-38. At the palace of Ithaca, Odysseus-the-beggar is confronted by the tramp Irus who challenges him to a fight. Irus uses a number of similes that paint vivid pictures, as he compares Odysseus to a weak old woman and a pig whose teeth he will rip out.