Hunting & Animal Similes in Homer – Part 1: The Iliad

Hunting & Animal Similes in Homer – Part 1: The Iliad

            The Homeric simile, also known as an epic simile, is a literary device often used by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. A simile is an extended, elaborate poetic comparison, usually running for several lines, that uses vivid imagery to link a character's actions or a narrative event to something from nature or daily life that is familiar to the audience or listener. The purpose of a simile is to enhance the reader's understanding and appreciation of the narrative, by linking the unknown or the unusual to something well known or more commonplace. Homer also uses the simile to glorify a character or to call attention to them, or to heighten the intensity or importance of an event. A simile provides a way for the narrator to talk directly to the audience and to pause for a moment to build understanding while the action is taking place. According to Ian Johnston of Vancouver Island University, “What distinguishes the Homeric simile from an ordinary simile is its length, its detail, and often the energy of its impact, for the length and syntax of the trope (especially the longer versions) enable the lines to gather considerable momentum.”

            Homer uses very familiar comparisons in his similes, often drawing from natural events like storms or other weather phenomena, earthquakes, raging wildfires, or the actions of wild beasts or domestic herds. In this first paper of two, we will concentrate our attention on Homer’s use of hunting and animal similes in the Iliad. For the purposes of this study, we will ignore similes that reference birds, insects or reptiles. In Part 2, we will turn to the Odyssey for a similar analysis.

            In order for a simile to fulfill its purpose, it had to compare the character or the event in question with something that was familiar to the listener. Animal husbandry was an important part of everyday life in ancient Greece and domestic animals were often raised and used for food purposes. The nature of the terrain dictated the type of livestock that could be kept and of course this was regional in nature. For the most part, there was a concentration on keeping sheep and goats because the land was more suitable, although cattle and horses were commonly raised in certain areas. Pigs were common because they took little care and would eat virtually anything and poultry ran free on most properties.

Hunting was also very common in ancient Greece and wild meat was most often used as a way of supplementing food sources, without having to sacrifice domestic herds for sustenance. Hunting was also essential for protecting the family livestock and was also an activity that was engaged in for sport or for military training purposes.

Homer’s use of animal and hunting similes in his epics serves the purpose of linking to something well-known to the listener and also helps to provide modern readers with insight into the day-to-day lives of the ancient Greeks and their cultural values. His similes create powerful images that stick in the mind and reinforce the narrative. They are not just pretty pictures that are presented to make the story more appealing, but rather they are devices that are crucial to the story and enrich the tale that is being told. The simile is used so often by Homer that he must have been very well aware of the impact that it had on his audience.

You can just imagine an audience sitting there spellbound as the wandering bard was singing about soldiers and armies gathered on the plains of Troy. But in all likelihood, most of the people gathered by the fire to hear the story would never have seen an army or have known what a battlefield looked like. Homer related the scene to something they knew, the tending of goats and cattle.

Just as goatherds arrange their own flocks separately, after they have been mixed in the pasture, so the leaders of the men easily manoeuvred their soldiers, moving them left and right and up towards the front of the battle line. And among them strode great King Agamemnon with eyes and head like Zeus the lover of lightning, girdled like Ares and with the chest of Poseidon. Like a great bull stands distinguished among a herd of bulls and cows, so also did Zeus place the son of Atreus that day in a position superior to all the other heroes present there.

            Homer’s first wild beast simile came when Menelaus caught sight of Alexander on the battlefield. In Homer’s words we can sense the power and the gloating pleasure of the lion, as well as the abject terror that its prey must have felt.

But when the war-loving Menelaus saw him striding along in front of the troops, he was as pleased as a hungry lion that comes across the large carcass of either a horned stag or a wild goat which he devours voraciously, even if vigorous young men and swift dogs are pursuing him. Such as this was Menelaus delighted to espy the godlike Alexander, for he was determined in his mind to seek revenge on the evil-doer.

            Homer used another hunting simile, this time with Agamemnon hurling an insult at any lagging troops among the Danaans. His audience would certainly have understood fully the significance of comparing the reluctant soldiers to tired fawns.

And any that he saw hanging back from the terrible battle, he chided with angry words. “You bragging Argives who are skilled as archers, are you not ashamed of yourselves? Why do you stand there in amazement like young tired fawns who after running across a wide plain, stop out of breath and out of courage. Thus you stand there astounded and not fighting.”

And in a similar familiar vein, Homer levied an insult against the Trojan army.

But the Trojans, being like the sheep of a rich man standing there being milked of their white milk, bleating incessantly having heard their lambs crying, raised their war cry throughout their wide army.

            Homer used a simile of a wounded lion to enhance his description of the fighting rage of Diomedes. His audience would have nodded their heads in recognition of the image.

Three times as much spirit spurred him on, as is a lion which a shepherd in the field has wounded but not killed near his fleecy sheep after it has leaped over the enclosure and he has only aroused its fury. The shepherd does not help his flock but rather goes back to the sheepfold and the flock scatters panic-stricken into the field and huddle together and the lion, pressing them on, leaps upon them from the enclosure. And in this same way, the mighty Diomedes was eager to mix it up with the Trojans.

Just like a lion is wont to leap on and break the neck of a heifer or bull pasturing in a thicket, so the son of Tydeus hurled them out of their chariot against their will.

            Apparently lions were fairly common in ancient Greece and only became extinct in approximately 100 BCE. Lions were a feature of ancient literature, art and sculpture. The Lion Gate at the entrance to King Agamemnon’s palace in Mycenae is the oldest known relief sculpture in the Western world, dating to the 13^th century BCE. Homer often used lions in his similes and his audience would have been familiar with the images presented of them raging in the wild or being hunted by men.

But there the consummation of death overcame them both. They were like two lions that had been raised by their mother in the thicket of deep woods on a mountain top, who then seize bullocks and large fattened sheep and destroy the farmsteads of men and are in turn killed by the sharp bronze held in the hands of those men. In the same manner they were both overcome by the hands of Aeneas and fell like lofty pine trees.

And in another case involving a lion,

Even as a lion comes upon sheep without a shepherd or on goats or rams and is minded to leap upon them, so in the same way the son of Tydeus attacked the Thracian men until he had killed twelve of them.

But above all, the following simile captures the fury of the beast and the terror of the hunted. Homer presents the contest as completely one-sided and we are given a glimpse of how this war is going to end.

And just like a lion crushes with his sharp teeth the young offspring of a swift deer after it has come to their lair and has robbed them of their sweet lives, and the mother, though she is nearby and wants to help them but she herself is subject to terrible and fearsome shaking and she quickly darts through the thick copse, rushing and sweating before the onset of the ferocious beast, even so no men of the Trojans were able to ward off destruction from these two but were driven in flight before the Argives.

Horses were fairly common in ancient Greece, especially in regions like Thessaly and Argolis, but they were expensive and difficult to maintain. They were usually reserved for the very wealthy and were regarded as symbols of prestige and nobility. A horse was not something that a common man would own, but he would certainly have been familiar with the beast. At the time of the Iliad, horses were mainly used in warfare to pull chariots and there are many references to them doing so in the epic. Homer also uses horses as the backdrop for certain similes, such as the one used to describe Paris rushing to battle. But if we read the simile carefully, we can see that Homer looks like he is describing Paris with tongue in cheek.

He rushed through the town relying on his swift feet, just like when a standing horse is feeding on barley at its crib and breaks its restraint and runs with a gallop over the plain, having been used to bathing in a fair-flowing stream exulting, and it holds its head high and tosses the mane on its shoulders, it having relied on its beauty, its knees swiftly take him to the places which are the usual abodes of the mares.

            Later Hector attacked the Achaeans and we witness another familiar image. The simile serves to sharpen the scene and to enhance the description of the character.

Hector was out in the front of them exulting in his strength. Just like some wild dog that running on swift feet catches and hangs onto a wild boar or a lion by the haunches or the backside and makes it turn around, so Hector followed after the long-haired Achaeans, always slaying the hindmost ones and they fled in terror.

            Dogs were highly valued in ancient Greece and were used as family pets, as well as for safeguarding domestic herds and flocks and for hunting purposes. Any reference to a dog that Homer would have made in a simile would provide an instantly recognizable image. For example, the audience would have nodded in agreement over the picture of the Achaean sentries keeping watch by night and their own dogs watching the flocks while their owners slept.

Just like the dogs who keep painful watch over the sheep in the fold when they hear the stout-hearted wild beast coming across the plain and a great noise arises of men and dogs and drives away sleep from them, in the same way did sweet sleep leave their eyelids as they kept watch against evil throughout the night, for they kept watching toward the plain to see if the Trojans were advancing.

And in another case involving dogs,

And just as two sharp-fanged hounds who are skillful at hunting press hard on a deer or a rabbit in a woody spot and it runs before them bleating, in like manner did the son of Tydeus and Odysseus the city-sacker cut Dolon off from his people and chase quickly after him.

            Homer employed several similes where he used images of wild beasts like jackals and wolves to paint the picture of the action. These were all done in a highly effective way and with a very close attention paid to detail, such as the following example:

But Achilles went about all the tents of the Myrmidons and had them arm themselves and they rushed forth like raging wolves with unspeakable fury in their souls, like wolves that have slain a great stag in the hills and their jaws are all stained blood red and in a pack they go to lap with their tongues the dark waters of a spring and belch blood and gore with their hearts unflinching and their bellies full.

And another similar example to the last one,

Then the leaders of the Danaans each killed their man, just like ravenous wolves that set themselves upon lambs or kids as they graze, left scattered by a careless herdsman throughout the hillside and when they spot them, they fall upon them and tear those feeble ones to pieces. In like manner the Danaans fell upon the Trojans and sent them shrieking into panic and flight and they abandoned their bravery in battle.

            Lions are mentioned many times in the Iliad and in fact there are at least 22 extended similes featuring lions in the epic, and more than 18 beyond those already cited. Dogs and hounds are also frequently noted and Homer presents at least 10 more than we have discussed. There are a dozen more similes that describe the actions of cattle and oxen and half a dozen more that feature horses. Wild beasts like wolves, jackals, leopards and boars are also used to expand the narrative. All of Homer’s similes help to provide vivid imagery, character development and emotional depth and serve to underline the universal nature of conflict and suffering. By linking the unknown or unfamiliar with what the audience can relate to, Homer provides a heightened level of entertainment and understanding to his narrative. The simile, and especially those that deal with animals and hunting, is a device that Homer has perfected.