What does this Homeric simile mean?
It's talking about joy brought by relief and an end to worry. In Homer's time, losing a father wasn't just a matter of losing a loved one. Since women didn't work, for money, losing your father would mean doing without a home, a teacher, and someone you loved. So, it's imagining that the father is very sick and kids have seen him suffering with illness, (pretend it's your dad, with cancer) and then the just gets better, as if by a miracle. So he gets better and his family is happy. It's that kind of joy.
What does this homeric simile mean ?
Here are the means I thought would serve my turn: a club, or staff, lay there along the fold-an olive tree, felled green and left to season for Cyclops' hand. And it was like a mast a lugger of twenty oars, broad in the beam--a deep-sea-going craft-might carry:so long, so big around, it seemed. can someone explain what the similie means like what it's trying to say ?
What does this homeric simile mean?
It refers to someone who knows how to rely on himself. "In the end he deemed it best to take to the woods, and he found one upon some high ground not far from the water. There he crept beneath two shoots of olive that grew from a single stock- the one an ungrafted sucker, while the other had been grafted. No wind, however squally, could break through the cover they afforded, nor could the sun's rays pierce them, nor the rain get through them, so closely did they grow into one another. Ulysses crept under these and began to make himself a bed to lie on, for there was a great litter of dead leaves lying about- enough to make a covering for two or three men even in hard winter weather. He was glad enough to see this, so he laid himself down and heaped the leaves all round him. Then, as one who lives alone in the country, far from any neighbor, hides a brand as fire-seed in the ashes to save himself from having to get a light elsewhere, even so did Ulysses cover himself up with leaves; and Minerva shed a sweet sleep upon his eyes, closed his eyelids, and made him lose all memories of his sorrows."
What is Homeric simile?
Thanks for the A2A!The other answer has it correct, in essence! They're extended similes, longer than what we'd deem as ‘usual’. For actual simile examples taken from Homer, take a look at my answer here: Amy Dakin's answer to In "The Odyssey", what are examples of figurative language?I'll put one example here for good measure:“As the snow melts on the peaks of high mountains, when the west wind has piled it there and the east wind brings the thaw, and the rivers flow full with the melting snow: so her lovely cheeks melted in tears” - Odyssey, book 19, line 203.It's most often the case that a Homeric simile likens things to nature (animals, weather, etc), or to manual labour work (shipbuilding, shepherding, sailing, etc). Supposedly this can help an audience to more easily picture surreal or dramatic scenes.
How do you write an epic/homeric simile?
First and foremost, do you mean how to create a grammatical construction known as an "epic simile" or how to write a simile on Homer? In the latter case you need to emulate the rythm of the Homeric epic poems - the so-called "hexameter". It implies that you stress every third syllable, starting with the first one, so that whoever reads it will find him- or herself going "DI-da-da-DI-da-da-DI-da-da..." Homer usually had about five or six such sequences (each DI-da-da being one sequence) per line and so should you if you want to write a simile. Secondly, Homer only ever wrote blank-verses. That is: while the rythm was stringent the end of the lines did not rhyme. In contemporary English one example could be "FIRMly in HAND had he TAken the SWORD of his FAther. ENimies SAW him and REcoiled in PAnic and ANguish. HECtor, his ALly, took HEED from his PREsence and BELlowed: WHY have you COME to the FIGHT with such UNseemly LATEness?" And so on. If you use my text for your essay, please don't forget to un-capitalise the syllables... ;-) If your question was simply about extended, or epic similes, well, these are similes which have been... er... extended. Simile evolves around the word "like" or "as" comparing one object with another. (And unlike metaphors which basically postulate that the two objects are identical.) EXTENDED (or epic) similes are similes which compare an object not just with another object but, at the same time, with a whole range of observations about this object. Here is a suitably Biblical example: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." A basic simile would have been "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure". The fact that the text goes on and on to elaborate on this treasure makes it an extended simile.
What are some examples of Homeric similes in "The Odyssey"?
One of the best—and my favorite one—is given by Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, an ally of the Trojans and captain in the Lycian army, when his Achaean adversary, Diomedes, asks him about his origin, as per custom before a duel:Τυδεΐδη μεγάθυμε τί ἢ γενεὴν ἐρεείνεις; / οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν. / Φύλλα τὰ μέν τ᾽ ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δέ θ᾽ ὕλη / τηλεθόωσα φύει, ἔαρος δ᾽ ἐπιγίγνεται ὥρη· / ὣς ἀνδρῶν γενεὴ ἣ μὲν φύει ἣ δ᾽ ἀπολήγει.Great-souled son of Tydeus, wherefore inquirest thou of my lineage? / Even as are the generations of leaves, such are those also of men. / As for the leaves, the wind scattereth some upon the earth, but the forest, / as it bourgeons, putteth forth others when the season of spring is come; / even so of men one generation springeth up and another passeth away.(Iliad 6.145–149)The analogies are: Every leaf is a man; an entire leafage is an entire generation; the wind is time (or life and all it brings upon men); the earth is death, where men are literally buried; the forest is the world, time, and humanity as a whole; spring is a new era; the new leafage is the next generation.This simile is unarguably one of the most well-known and discussed parts of the Homeric epics. The beauty, realism, thoughtfulness, depth, solemness, magnanimity, and philosophical contemplation of life it exhales are more than obvious. At the end, the Iliad is an epic about life and death in their fullness.And, pay attention to that, the ending is not pessimistic; it’s about the continuation of humankind in an eternal process where every generation becomes the fertilizer for the next one—that’s what becomes of dead leaves, after all. Glaucus himself, after the simile, starts narrating his family’s origin with great pride and ends up saying: «Ταύτης τοι γενεῆς τε καὶ αἵματος εὔχομαι εἶναι» (“This is the lineage and the blood whereof I avow me sprung”, Iliad 6.211). Humans are temporal, but not unimportant. And, of course, after he and Diomedes realize their forefathers were relatives, they stop fighting immediately and exchange gifts, bringing a sense of harmony and respect into the fierce struggle. It’s a magnificent scene all along.PS: I just realized the question was only about the Odyssey; I thought it was about both Homeric epics (or was it later edited?). Anyway, I apologize for the technically off the topic answer; I won’t delete it, though, in case it says something that can be of importance.
What are the Homeric similes in Book 22 of The Odyssey and what do they mean?
For an in-depth analysis, interpretation and understanding of the topic of similes, I would recommend you the two following books:William C. Scott, The Oral Nature Of The Homeric Simile, available here.William C. Scott, The Artistry of the Homeric Simile, available here.The topic as you can imagine is worthy of hundreds of pages :) You can start with these two books to have a great insight.Good luck!
Is this a Homeric simile (from The Odyssey)?
"O hear me, lord of the stream: how sorely I depend upon your mercy! derelict as I am by the sea's anger. Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes, as I have come, in weariness before your knees, your waters? Here is your servant; lord, have mercy on me." Is this a Homeric simile? Why? I don't understand how it is one.. And I DO KNOW the definition of Homeric simile
5 examples of Homeric Simile in the "Iliad"?
1- "They swarmed forth like wasps from a roadside nest…" (p.421, 305-308) 2- "… the massive shield flashing far and wide like a full round moon…" (p. 500, 422) 3- "…like a great bearded lion the dogs and field hands drive back…" (p.446, 126-127) 4- "As ravenous wolves come swooping down on lambs…so the Achaeans mauled the Trojans." (p. 424, 415). 5- "Hungry as wolves that rend and bolt raw flesh…" (p. 417, 188). More Examples of Homeric Similes: (6)- "But now, wild as a black cyclone twisting out of a cloudbank, building up from the day's heat, blasts and towers- so brazen Ares looked to Tydeus' son Diomedes." (p.192, 997-1000) and, (7)- "As gale-winds swirl and shatter under the shrilling gusts on days when drifts of dust lie piled thick on the roads and winds whip up the dirt in a dense whirling cloud- so the battle broke…" (p. 352, 388-391) (8)- "Achilles now like inhuman fire raging on through the mountain gorges splinter-dry, setting ablaze big stands of timber…storming on with brandished spear…" (p.519, 553-559). (9)- "…Tlepolemus tall and staunch…his strong fate was driving him now against Sarpedon, a man like a god." (p. 184-185, 722-724), (10)- "And so Briseis returned…but when she saw Patroclus lying torn by bronze, she flung herself on his body… she sobbed like a goddess in her grief…" (p. 497, 333-335). (11)- "…the ranks pulled closer, tight as a mason packs a good stone wall…" (p. 419, 250-251) Peace :)