I think the most powerful thing that I have come away with after a re-reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey (Fagel's translation) is how Homer (or, as Mark Twain said, some other guy named Homer) used similes to make the almost unimaginable violence of the war not only comprehensible but real for people who will, God willing, never partake of such horrific stuff. I am fairly sure that I will never "cleave" anyone and, again, God willing, will never be "cleaved." Yet, Homer's similies make such scenes comprehenisble and much more human. My favorite from the Iliad...the two armies have dug in against each other, neither giving up an inch of ground.
"Many were wounded, flesh ripped by the ruthless bronze
whenever some fighter wheeled and bared his back
but many right through the bucker's hide itself.
Everywhere-rocks, ramparts, breastworks swam
with the blood of Trojans, Argives, both sides,
but still the Trojans could not rout the Argives.
They held tight as a working widow holds the scales,
painstakingly grips the beam and lifts the wieght
and the wool together, balancing both sides even,
struggling to win a grim subsistence for her children"
Not only is the struggle of the armies "humanized," but the reality of the battle that is real, daily life is elevated.
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