A COLLECTION OF SIMILES FROM THE ILIAD OF HOMER

TAthenian monumental funerary Krater, Attic, Geometric, 750 to 700 BC. 125 cm high. Shows figure-eight shields, processions of chariots and horses known as ekphora, and scenes of games and funerals from the Iliad and Odyssey, in bands of black on red that circle the vase Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

Instructions

This site offers two methods for finding a Homeric simile.

First Method: Start from Part 1. Select a book and skim through the descriptions. Selecting a description takes you to the simile in Part 2.

Second Method: Use Part 3. Use your browser's FIND and FIND AGAIN... to locate similes with keywords.

CITATION FORMAT
11: 222/333
11 means Book Eleven
222 identifies the line in the Greek text of the Loeb editionIliad
333 is the first line of Robert Fagles English translation.

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Another scene from Attic Krater showing a large bird standing on the stern of a black ship
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

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 INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1
Descriptions
of
Homeric Similes		  PART 2
Texts
of
Homeric Similes		 PART 3 
Keyword Search:
of
Homeric Similes 

  About This Site  Bibliography
and Notes		   Links

The Simile Collector's Library

 

Scene of horses from Krater showing all four legs and two soldiers with figure-eight shields

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)

 

quel segnor de l'altissimo canto
   che sovra li altri com' aquila vola.
                                        -Inferno IV: 95-96

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LINKS
To ENGLISH and GREEK TEXTS
HOMERIC SITES
and
SIMILE PUBLICATIONS

 

 

The Iliad in Greek from Perseus:

Samuel Butler's public domain translation available as HTML or TXT

Steven Hales' site provides extensive background about the works of Homer

Richard Hooker's site provides information on the poet Homer and Mycenian civilization

"So stretched out huge in length": Reading the Extended Simile by Catherine Addison in STYLE Fall, 2001 is a wonderful essay that clearly explains how Homer developed and used the simile.

An excellent discussion of how similes substitute for narration is available in Words and the Poet: Characteristic Techniques of Style in Vergil's Aeneid. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. The author is R.O.A.M. Lyne.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Homer: The Iliad by Robert Fagles. Introduction and notes by Bernard Knox. 1990. Viking Press. Hardback and paper.

Homer The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T. Murray. 2 vol. 1925. Harvard University Press. Cambridge Ma. The Loeb Classical Library. edt by C. P. Gould


Notes

(Homer), the lord of song incomparable,
who like an eagle soars above the rest.
                          -Dante Alighieri. Translated by Allen Mandelbaum.
                          Inferno: A Verse Translation. Bantam Books. 1982

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A comparison of Butler's and Fagles' translations

 BUTLER

 

 FAGLES

 BOOK 3

 

 BOOK 3

When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain, the Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they wrangle in the air as they fly;
-Butler (3:1ff)		    
Now with the squadrons marshaled, captains leading each,
the Trojans came with cries and din of war like wildfowl
when the long hoarse cries of cranes sweep on against the sky
and the great formations flee from winter's grim ungodly storms,
flying in force, shrieking south to the Ocean gulfs, speeding
blood and death to the Pygmy warriors, launching at daybreak
savage battle down upon their heads.
-Fagles (3:1-7)

 BUTLER
BOOK 9

 

FAGLES 
BOOK 9

Thus did the Trojans watch. But Panic, comrade of blood-stained Rout, had taken fast hold of the Achaeans and their princes were all of them in despair. As when the two winds that blow from Thrace- the north and the northwest- spring up of a sudden and rouse the fury of the main- in a moment the dark waves uprear their heads and scatter their sea-wrack in all directions- even thus troubled were the hearts of the Achaeans.
-Butler (9:1ff)		  
So the Trojans held their watch that night but not the Achaeans-
godsent Panic seized them, comrade of bloodcurdling Rout:
all their best were struck by grief too much to bear.
As crosswinds chop the sea where the fish swarm,
the North Wind and the West Wind blasting out of Thrace
in sudden, lightning attack, wave on blacker wave, cresting,
heaving a tangled mass of seaweed out along the surf-
so the Achaeans' hearts were torn inside their chests.
-Fagles (9:1-8)

 

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Detail of vase showing soldierABOUT THIS SITE

If the text appears too large or small, open your browser's VIEW to increase or decrease the text size .

The address for this page is http://www.monmouth.com/~bob-king/similes/iliad/homeric_similes.html

Last update May 16, 2004

Please send comments, questions, and suggestions by email (Don't Forget to delete REMOVE) to Bob King at: SimileREMOVE@vaticanus.mailshell.com

This site is in memory of my aunt: Regina Hera (1923-1995)

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The Simile Collector's Library