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Of the ancient masterpieces in literature, one of the most prominent is The Iliad. It is the vivid depiction of two countries bitterly warring over a single woman, Helen, the wife of Menelaus. The fighting takes place for approximately ten years before the Argive armies (the Greeks) finally win out over the Trojans. Currently, this classic epic is available to a contemporary audience in several different forms. It may be read, listened to, or even viewed in a re-creation. However, for a mostly illiterate country, the story’s author, Homer, had a challenge of how to tell the story to the masses. This was accomplished by singing the entire poem, or perhaps several books at a time to them. This was a continuing of what is now called the oral tradition of communication. This is something which Homer used to its fullest possibility. However, a problem remained in trying to describe the scenes in ways that the common people would understand, in shaping images with words that the listening group of people would be able to grasp and understand. This is where the many descriptive similes in The Iliad come from. In The Iliad, descriptions of people and events were stated in terms which an average person in Ancient Greece could understand. These similes are divisible into several different categories: the descriptions of battles, people, and gods. In all cases, these similes were being used to aid understanding in Greek oral tradition.

The Iliad itself is focused on a war between Troy and Greece which lasted for about ten years. Since most of the listeners of this epic had never seen battles on such a grand scale as the story suggests, similes were used to forge links between what those people would understand and the actual events of the combat. The similes used to describe the various fighting scenes often used nature to depict the actions of the warriors, or of entire ranks of men. If the average person who was listening to this epic had never seen war, he or she would not have been able to visualize the actions being dictated. Therefore, having creative and elaborate descriptions of something common in their lives, juxtaposed with the unfamiliar would allow the listener to discern what the singer of the tale was trying to convey. The similes of fighting can be separated into two different categories; the type depicting animals in nature, and of the happenings of the natural world itself.

In the text there sometimes are up to four similes on a single page of fighting, describing one or several people via animal behavior. This is seen when the Trojans are fighting for the body of Patroclus, when the simile used links their armies to an angered hive of wasps. When the Trojans charged it:

It is obvious to see how the images found in a typical life of an Ancient Greek could be used to describe the movements of entire armies in a seething battle. Two other very frequently used references to the mass movements of troops are that of land and water. These references utilize the commonality of the elements in order to describe something almost totally alien to a majority of the listeners. In Book Thirteen of the Iliad, Hector and his men are likened to both of these elements as “...a deadly rolling boulder torn from a rock face--/ a river swollen with snow has wrenched it from its socket,/ immense floods breaking the bank’s grip, and the reckless boulder/ bounding high, flying with timber rumbling under it,/ nothing can stop it now, hurtling on undaunted.”2 Again, this method of similes were used to describe the intensity of Hector and his troops as they progressed down onto the Argives.

The other type of simile which was used extensively in the battles is when one person was singled out for a description of their fighting prowess. These instances often called upon the graphic details of wolves in attack, or the ravaging of a lion. One of the Argive warriors, Menelaus was once described

In this case, Menelaus is so fierce in battle that he frightens off other would-be attackers with the sheer ferocity of his initial attack.

When looking at the similes of warriors in battle, there are several observations which can also be made. The first is that the type of animal which is used to describe the person and his actions is a representative of him in a more carnal sense. In multiple instances, the term lion is used to describe several fighters, Argives and Trojans alike. Traditionally, the lion represents strength, pride, and courage. These characteristics which certain warriors possess are in The Iliad help to determine the type of simile used in their description. Obviously, a person who is a weak fighter will not be described in the same manner as Achilles when he is “. . .rearing like some lion out on a rampage.”4 Even characteristics of stubbornness are linked to the tenacity of mules. When the Argives try to haul Patroclus’ body back to the ships,5 it is the ability of the fighters to go about their work with a relentless, obstinate abandon which aptly links them to the traditionally accepted idea of the mule: stubborn.

The second major use of simile in The Iliad is for the description of people in combative and non-combative situations. These can almost be seen as a type of title for the person described. Most of these are used in relation to a physical property or some type of skill which that person has. Generally, only the characters of notable importance were named with such titles. If every soldier in the entire epic were named with a title, the book would become so large that extreme editing would be necessary to shorten it to a length to about the size it is today. Of the types of titles given in the story, two categories can again be discerned from the text: titles of mortal men and women, and those of the gods.

Titles for the mortals, while not strictly used to describe their fighting ability were also used in other scenario as a form of verbal recognition of their skill and importance. In the fighting, there are many similes linking the characters of Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, and Ajax, along with other men who were often referred to in battle as having the characteristics of a lion. Again this showed their skill, strength, and overall mighty presence. But other types of creatures which are not generally associated with battle are used to describe some of the fighters. Achilles is once addressed as a dolphin when he is in the Xanthus river slaughtering Trojans. The entire time the Trojans were trying to escape his rage :

This creative use of people’s knowledge helps the visualization of Achilles destroying ranks of men at a time.

There are also lavish descriptions used to name people while they are not in fighting scenes. At one point, Patroclus was with Odysseus at Achilles camp as an embassy to win his favor back so he would fight with the Argives again. As Achilles cut the meats and speared them for the spit, preparing them for the gods, Patroclus worked on making the fire. This was described as: “...Patroclus raked the hearth, a man like a god/ making the fire blaze.”7 This is one of the few instances in the story that a mortal is compared to a deity. There were numerous times when a man’s fighting skill was said to be godlike, or one of their other talents was worthy of the gods above. Generally, this was merely an elaborate way of saying that a person did something really well. Everyone knew that the god Hephaestus, “the famous crippled Smith,”8 was the god of fire. If Patroclus could make a fire that was worthy of a god, it was surely a mighty blaze which Patroclus had created. It allowed the listeners in ancient Greece to sit in awe over these great skills. As with many of these similes, it was a way of embellishing a person’s qualities to make them all the more impressive. If Homer had written that Patroclus made a fire the height of a man and hot as the sun on a summer day, that would have be an impressive fire, nonetheless, but since he linked it to the god of fire, the hearth took on an otherworldly sense which impressed the listener all the more.

In the various descriptions of the gods, similes are slightly more difficult to come by. Whereas a mortal can be compared to everything from wildlife to a god, the gods don’t have so many options. It would be insulting to compare a god to a mortal, or something else beneath them, so what Homer did was describe them by their specific abilities. In essence, he moves laterally instead of vertically. Zeus, the son of Cronus, father of all gods is often depicted as the god “...who marshals the storm clouds.”9 The similes used for the gods are often their official title, or related to it in any rate. Apollo is the chief god of the Trojans, as a result, they pray often to him. One of the more frequently used titles for him is the “god of the silver bow.”10 Although descriptions of the gods typically do not use animals, there are several references to the goddess Hera as being “...the ox-eyed queen of heaven.”11 While on a first look, this might seem to be derogatory, it is indeed a compliment. Oxen typically have deep, dark brown eyes. Linking her to the qualities of one of these creatures, while not typical in the story, does still relate an aspect of her being to something which a common person would be able to understand and visualize. Thus, even for the mighty gods, set apart by their powers, familiarizing similes were used.

Throughout The Iliad, there are obviously many different types of similes used in the graphic depiction of battles, people, places, and gods. Without the creative usage of this literary device, it would have been very difficult, if not impossible for the first listeners of the story to adequately picture what was being sung to them. The similes perform a vital role in the telling of this story. They not only assist a reader while trying to imagine what is being read, but they allow a person in the modern age to see how relations were described to a people less advanced than a modern culture. It allows for the prospect of understanding more of the culture of ancient Greece and it’s inhabitants. The Iliad itself serves a multi-functional purpose today. It is used as a means of learning about a culture which has faded from the face of the planet into the obscurity of ancient tales and legends. It can also teach how wars were fought, the types of armor, weapons, and even strategies used in conquests of other countries in that time period. Possibly the most important usage of it is to give an insight to the social standards of the time, how that culture behaved, what they believed, and how they lived. It is a classical epic which will undoubtedly be read for generations to come, delighting readers with the exploits of people who lived thousands of years ago, if ever.

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