Examples Of Simile In The Odyssey

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The epic simile is a common staple of the Homeric epics The Iliad and The Odyssey. What differentiates the epic simile and the simile is that the comparison made in the epic simile is more elaborate – oftentimes embedding other metaphors within the simile itself – and is drawn out over several lines whereas a smile is usually simpler and shorter.
In The Odyssey, an epic simile is used in order to describe the joy Penelope feels after being reunited with her husband, Odysseus, after being separated from him for twenty years. The first few lines of the epic simile - describing the joy as being as “warm as the joy that shipwrecked sailors feel/when they catch sight of land.” - taken on their own could be just a mere simile; however, Homer’s further …show more content…

The structure of the passage containing the simile leads the audience to think that the simile is referring to Odysseus. The lines immediately preceding the epic simile - “he wept as he held the wife/he loved, the soul of loyalty, in his arms at last.” - take place from Odysseus’s point of view. The comparison used is a simplified version of Odysseus’s journey and the joy of returning “home” to dry land so it would be reasonable for the audience to assume that the joy being described belongs to Odysseus, who had finally returned to his home. However, the lines immediately following the epic simile reveal that the joy being described belongs to Penelope herself about her reunion with Odysseus. This causes the scenario used to describe the joy - the shipwreck - to take on a new meaning. By using a simplified of Odysseus’s journey (sans monsters and goddesses) to describe Penelope, Homer transfers Odysseus’s emotions and struggles to Penelope. The not only emphasizes and clarifies the emotional intensity of the scene, but it also highlights Penelope’s and Odysseus’s close relationship and their similarities. Like Odysseus and like the sailors in the epic simile, Penelope was also trying to reclaim “home” by fending off her rowdy and inconsiderate suitors and trying to maintain order in Ithaca while her husband was

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