One word must be added on the frequent comparisons, or similes, which
form one of the most characteristic features of the poem. At least
half the _Iliad_ is occupied with descriptions of battle, and Homeric
warfare is exceedingly simple and uniform, consisting almost entirely
of single combats between individual chieftains, or wholesale slaughter
wrought by some puissant arm on the promiscuous herd of soldiers. To
render so unpromising a theme interesting and attractive must have
taxed the skill and invention of the poet to their utmost limit; and
his principal resources for attaining this end is in the lavish use of
the simile. In those parts of the poem where much is to be told in
little space this ornament occurs rarely, or not at all. In the first
book, which is crowded with incidents, not a single simile is used.
But where the action is to be delayed or elaborated, and especially in
the battle pieces, the similes are flung broadcast, shining like stars
among the racing clouds of a stormy sky. Every corner of nature, and
every province of human life, are ransacked to furnish illustrations of
the eternal drama of "battle, and murder, and sudden death." In a
moment we are rapt by the magic of the poet from the steam and squalor
of slaughter to some busy scene of human industry, or some living
picture, grand, lovely, or terrible, drawn from the great panorama of
nature. Nothing is too great, nothing too little, to furnish material
for this splendid treasury of poetry. It would be easy to discourse
for pages on this fascinating subject; but we must content ourselves
with the above brief hint, and will conclude our remarks by declaring
our full agreement with those who regard the similes in the _Iliad_ as
the chief glory and beauty in the first and greatest of epic poems.