Homeric Similes

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Homer’s writing style is his florid, colorful similes. He is famous for his vivid imagery, which does not take the form of such direct descriptions as “the sounds of the battle were violent and thunderous,” but instead take more eloquent and expressive pictures, such as this striking description:

“As when rivers in winter spate running down from the mountains
Throw together at the meeting of streams the weight of their water
Out of the great springs behind in the hollow stream-bed,
And far away in the mountains the shepherd hears their thunder,
Such, from the coming together of men, was the shock and the shouting.”
(4. 452 – 456)

This example shows perfectly how Homer can weave words together to make something powerful and poignant, how by likening a thing to something different, he helps us to envision that thing completely. What a potent picture that simile invokes, how clearly you can hear the thunder and roar, the deadly sound of fiercest battle.

Another example is this portrait, describing the Greeks’ as they advance to furious combat with the Trojans:

“As on the peaks of a mountain the south wind scatters the thick mist,
No friend to the shepherd, but better than night for the robber,
And a man can see before him only so far as a stone cast,
So beneath their feet the dust drove up in a stormcloud
Of men marching, who made their way through the plain in great speed.”
(3. 10-14)

What a vision this conjures up before your eyes; can you not see the whirling dust, enveloping the “storm cloud of men marching,” a they proceed toward battle, the ground thundering and rumbling beneath their marching, pounding footsteps? And here we see Homer’s vivid and highly developed simile. Like all of his similes, to describe something, here the cloud of dust raised by the feet of the marching soldiers, he describes instead what he is comparing it with, such as the thick mist on the peaks of a mountain. Homer, we see, when describing a thing, develops the thing to which it is likened, rather than the thing itself.

Homer not only likens the cloud of dust raised by the marching men to the thick mist on mountain peaks, but he describes that mist as “no friend of the shepherd, but better than night for the robber,” giving a visual of dimness and shadows. He adds that “a man can see before him only so far as a stone is cast,” illustrating how thick this mist truly is.

“As when along the thundering beach the surf of the sea strikes
Beat upon beat as the west wind drives it onward; far out
Cresting first on the open water, it drives thereafter
To smash roaring along the dry land, and against the rock jut
Bending breaks itself into crests spewing back the salt wash;
So thronged beat upon beat the Danaans’ close battalions.”
(4. 422-432)

We can easily see the construction of Homer’s similes here: “A is like B; B has such and such a history, progresses in such and such a manner; and (we repeat) it is like A” (Richard Lattimore). This description of the sound of the Danaans’ “close battalions,” is yet another perfect example of Homer’s powerfully characteristic simile. He likens the beat of the Danaan’s battalions to the “surf of the sea,” as it strikes “beat upon beat as the west wind drives it onward,” depicting for us the thundering sound the Danaans’ close battalions make, how explosive and deafening it would ring in our ears were we but there to hear it.

“Now when the men of both sides were set in order by their leaders,
The Trojans came on with clamour and shouting, like wildfowl,
As when the clamour of cranes goes high to the heavens,
When cranes escape the winter time and rains unceasing
And clamourously wing their way to the streaming Ocean,
Bringing to the Pygmaian men bloodshed and destruction;
At daybreak they bring on the baleful battle against them.”
(Book 3, lines 1-7)

This simile describes the clamour and shouting of the Trojans as they thunder towards the Achaians to do battle. Homer likens their din to that of wildfowl, “as when the clamour of cranes goes high to the heavens, describing the cranes as they “escape the winter time and rains unceasing and clamourously wing their way to the streaming Ocean.” Here Homer beautifully portrays the pandemonium of battle to the racket of flying birds winging their way from winter and rain, adding for flavor that the cranes are “bringing to the Pygmaian men bloodshed and destruction,” just as the Trojans are bringing the Greeks.

Homer’s similes are perhaps one of the most effective writing techniques in the history of literature. The sense of description he lays before us with this real and striking imagery brings the Iliad alive before our eyes, powerful and piquant as ever, able to move though time and space and still remain vivid and electric. Never has anyone been able to master with the same eloquence and imagination the art of vibrant similes as Homer did.