The Simile and the Homeric Comparative Spectrum

a study of the homeric simile can begin by defining its terms. I propose to accomplish this preliminary task by looking at the larger question of statements in the shape “A (is) like B” in the Homeric poems. Glaukos' famous contention that men resemble leaves is a good place to start: οἵη περ φύλλων γενεή, τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν. φύλλα τὰ μέν τ' ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δέ θ' ὕλη τηλεθόωσα φύει, ἔαρος δ' ἐπιγίγνεται ὥρη· ὣς ἀνδρῶν γενεὴ ἡ μὲν φύει ἡ δ' ἀπολήγει. As is the generation of leaves, so that also of men. Some leaves the wind pours out on the ground, but others the wood flourishing produces, and the season of spring returns: so the generation of men, one grows, the other dies. ( Il . 6.146–49) Hayden Pelliccia suggests that Glaukos' figure strongly asserts the similarity between tenor (i.e., “the generation of men”) and vehicle (i.e., “the generation of leaves”), whereas the purpose behind a simile comparing, for example, Achilleus to a leaping lion “does not seem to be to assert what Achilles is like, but to bring his leaping more vividly to the eye” (2002: 199). The idea that different Homeric statements in the shape “A is like B” reveal different degrees of similarity between tenor and vehicle appears elsewhere.

Art · Linguistics · Literature · Metaphor · Poetry · Simile · Task (project management) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Engineering · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy