Examples Of Similes In The Iliad

In book VIII of The Iliad, the death of a Trojan prince is juxtaposed to “a garden poppy, burst into red bloom, bends, / drooping its head to one side, weighed down / by its full seeds and a sudden spring shower” (VIII. 349-351). Just as the prince loses his glory, as well as his life, the poppy loses its beauty and life as it is weakened by a spring shower. Throughout the battle scenes in The Iliad, Homer compares great warriors to plants and natural forces using similes. The conventional way scholars interpret the use of these similes is to show that violence exists everywhere in the world (Stanley). However, I will argue that these similes of nature show glory’s existence in nature. While many warriors do achieve glory during war, their

glory is externally based and must be earned. On the other hand, nature and natural forces do not need to gain glory, for they already contain a natural glory that is linked to their great force, endurance, and immortality. I will argue this by examining similes pertaining to nature or natural forces from passages where warriors are achieving great glory, such as book VIII, book XI, book XVII, and book XXI. I will also compare literary arguments from Weil, Stanley, Silk, Redfield, and Ready to support my argument. Through my analysis of nature similes in The Iliad, I will prove that while glory can be achieved during war, true glory exists in nature.
Before the nature similes can be analyzed for their meaning, the idea of “glory” must first be defined and thoroughly understood. All the warriors in The Iliad strive for glory, and while glory is not just obtainable through fighting, war provides an opportunity for many warriors to capture glory at once (Stanley). To have glory, in the Homeric sense, is to have mass recognition for one’s strength, endurance, beauty, or power. As a result of earning glory, men can become immortal, with their story told over and over, orally or in writing, long after their death. Heroes in The Iliad are warriors that have achieved a great glory and have become almost god-like as a result. They wield the power to instill fear in the hearts of many, being a strong force that no man would willingly confront. During the warrior’s prime, they are respected, strike fear in others, are physically decorated, endure many battles, and have an inhuman power. It is also necessary to note that glory, or the Greek base word “kleos,” is used to refer to many different things besides just great warriors (Redfield). An example of this is when Poseidon complains about the Achaean wall, saying “its fame will spread as far as the light of dawn!” (VII. 522). This shows that, just like warriors, inanimate objects can hold glory. Objects that are especially beautiful, rare, powerful, immortal, or destructive acquire fame, and thus glory. As the person, place, or thing acquires an identity in the human world, stories are told around them and their glory lives (Redfield). Based on this analysis, it becomes clear that glory is not just obtainable by men at war, but rather places and things can have glory. Overall, to have glory means to have a distinguishing feature that is well known by the general human mass.
While glory is commonly achieved during war time, it becomes clear through thorough analysis of the nature similes in book XVII that true glory exists only in nature.

As seen in The Iliad, war brings the chance for men to gain glory, but they are never able to fully gain true glory. The warriors will never obtain the same amount of glory that nature and natural forces have. While the men’s glory is lost, nature will always be present, and thus, forever will have glory. But, while a warrior can no longer gain glory in battle in the modern world, nature still has retained its glory and force throughout history. An example of this from the poem is when Hector is first able to enter the Argive encampment, and his actions are compared to “a heavy surf roars in against the rip / at a river’s mouth, swelled with rains from Zeus, / and on either side the jutting headlands bellow back / at the booming sea with matching thunder” (XVII. 299-302). In this moment, he has great glory: he and his Trojan men are close to winning the ongoing battle since they were able to get into the Argive camp. Paralleled to this, a powerful wave is described slamming into a cliff, which reflects the force back into the ocean. While in that moment, Hector is full of glory, very soon his death brings a loss of glory for him. Unlike the wave, Hector’s glory and force cannot live forever. In the simile, waves will continue to slam into that cliff, and so the glory of the ocean and its waves will never die. This means that only the wave has the true glory between the two: a glory that can withstand hundreds of years and be understood by anyone during that time. True glory cannot be achieved by any mortal being. As a result, only plants, such as trees that can live hundreds of years, and natural forces, like wind, can hold the true glory all the warriors in The Iliad strive

for.