Now forth from her chamber came the wise Penelope like
Artemis or golden Aphrodite.
A likeness as (I. iii. 196):—
He like a goat crossed the serried lines first.
A simile, when he makes a comparison of closely related things that has a connection with subject narrated. There are in Homer various kinds of similes. Constantly and in many ways he compares the behavior and nature of animals to the arts and habits of men.
Sometimes he takes a similitude from very small things, not considering the size of the body, but the nature of each; whence he likens boldness to a fly (I. xvii. 570):—
And she breathed in his breast the courage of the fly.
And he compares assiduity to the same creature (I. ii. 469):—
As the many generations of numberless flies.
The packing together and orderly moving crowd to bees (I. ii. 87):—
As are the crowds of countless bees.