So he forced his spirit into submission,
the rage in his breast reined back – unswerving,
all endurance. But he himself kept tossing, turning,
intent as a cook before some white-hot blazing fire
who rolls his sizzling sausage back and forth,
packed with fat and blood – keen to broil it quickly,
tossing, turning it, this way, that way – so he cast about:
how could he get these shameless suitors in his clutches,
one man facing a mob?
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 25-33. Odysseus reins in his anger at the suitors and their lovers, the female servants, whom he can hear laughing as they leave the suitors’ beds at night. He postpones his revenge till the time is right. But he tosses and turns in his bed, his mind and emotions in torment as he plots his reveng. How one man can defeat the mob, he asks himself. An epic simile likens him to a cook turning a sizzling sausage that is broiling in a hot fire.