Stories of Similes in Greek and Roman Epic

Just as the story of an epic poem is woven from characters and plot, so too the individual similes within an epic create a unique simile world. Like any other story, it is peopled by individual characters, happenings, and experiences, such as the shepherd and his flocks, a storm at sea, or predators hunting prey. The simile world that complements the epic mythological story is re-imagined afresh in relation to the themes of each epic poem. As Deborah Beck argues in this stimulating book, over time a simile world takes shape across many poems composed over many centuries. This evolving landscape resembles the epic story world of battles, voyages, and heroes that comes into being through relationships among different epic poems. Epic narrative is woven from a warp of the mythological story world and a weft of the simile world. They are partners in creating the fabric of epic poetry.

DEBORAH BECK is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Homeric Conversation (2005) and Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic (2012). She is also the producer of 'Musings in Greek Literature,' a podcast featuring the work of advanced Greek students reading ancient Greek poetry at the University of Texas at Austin.