Epic Simile

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In rhetoric, an epic simile, or Homeric simile, is a simile which involves multiple points of correspondence between the tenor and the vehicle. They frequently occur in long narrative poems, such as the Homeric epics or Milton's Paradise Lost.

For example, Milton describes the combat of Satan and Death:

"Incenst with indignation Satan stood

Unterrifi'd, and like a Comet burn'd,

That fires the length of Ophiucus huge

In th' Artick Sky, and from his horrid hair

Shakes Pestilence and Warr. Each at the Head

Level'd his deadly aime; thir fatall hands

No second stroke intend, and such a frown

Each cast at th' other, as when two black Clouds

With Heav'ns Artillery fraught, come rattling on

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front

Hov'ring a space, till Winds the signal blow

To joyn thir dark Encounter in mid air:

So frownd the mighty Combatants, that Hell

Grew darker at thir frown, so matcht they stood..."

This double simile (first Satan is compared to a comet, then to a cloud) reflects back on the literal action: the violent energy of the comet is damped down by the immobile clouds. This change of vehicle reflects back on the fight which is the simile's tenor: it suggests that Satan starts off blazing with eagerness to fight Death, and then pauses, perhaps nervously.

Another short example from Homer's Odyssey:

"as a blacksmith plunges a glowing ax or adze

in an ice-cold bath and the metal screeches steam

and its temper hardens—that’s the iron’s strength—

so the eye of the Cyclops sizzled round that stake!"

Three further examples from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

The first two examples vividly depict brute force and power.

1. At the start of the fight between Iorek Byrnison and Iofur Rakinson, two armoured bears:

"Like two great masses of rock balanced on adjoining peaks and shaken loose by an earthquake, that bound down the mountainsides gathering speed, leaping over crevasses and knocking trees into splinters, until they crash into each other so hard that both are smashed to powder and flying chips of stone: that was how the two bears came together." (Northern Lights p350)

2. At the end of the fight, Iorek's move which defeats Iofur:

"That was when Iorek moved. Like a wave that has been building its strength over a thousand miles of ocean, and which makes little stir in the deep water, but which when it reaches the shallows rears itself up high into the sky, terrifying the shore-dwellers, before crashing down on the land with irresistible power - so Iorek rose up against Iofur, exploding upwards from his firm footing on the dry rock and slashing with a ferocious left hand at the exposed jaw of Iofur Rakinson." (Northern Lights p353)

3. The third example occurs near the end of Amber Spyglass, when Will and Lyra realise that they cannot be together. It is used to portray the immeasurable depth and strength of overwhelming emotion:

"And at the word alone, Will felt a great wave of rage and despair moving outwards from a place deep within him, as if his mind were an ocean that some profound convulsion had disturbed. All his life he'd been infinitely alone, and now he must be alone again, and this infinitely precious blessing that had come to him must be taken away almost at once. He felt the wave build higher and steeper to darken the sky, he felt the crest tremble and begin to spill, he felt the great mass crashing down with the whole weight of the ocean behind it against the iron-bound coast of what had to be. And he found himself gasping and shaking and crying aloud with more anger and pain than he had ever felt in his whole life, and he found Lyra just as helpless in his arms. But as the wave expended its force and the waters withdrew, the bleak rocks remained; there was no arguing with fate; neither his despair nor Lyra's had moved them a single inch. How long his rage lasted, he had no idea. But eventually it had to subside, and the ocean was a little calmer after the convulsion. The waters were still agitated, and perhaps they would never be truly calm again, but the great force had gone" (The Amber Spyglass p522)

Comparing objects from the "Odyssey" to objects that the people would be very familar with.