Epic+Simile

"And her wake on the purple night-sea foaming." - Homer
"How a four horse team whipped into a run on a straightaway consumes the road, surging and surging over it! So ran that craft and showed her heels to the swell, her bow wave riding after, and her wake on the purple night-sea foaming." (Pg. 232, Lines: 100-105)

This epic simile compares the Phaiákians ship to a team of running horses. Not only does it compare it in speed but it also suggests that the movement of the craft is graceful just like a fine horse team. In the text, it says that "... a straightway consumes the road", this claims that the boat was going fast, because it is "consuming the road", in other words it is gliding through the "sea" because of the speed of the boat. Homer describes the boat as "majestic", for "showed her heel to the swell" suggests that the boat is portrayed as elegant and glorious, mainly because it was the boat the "skilled in all ways of contending" Odysseus was riding. It is an epic simile because Homer, the author, instead of directly telling that the boat is going fast and triumphantly, is using the comparison of a team of horses, therefore this text is an epic simlie, because it is not as short as a simile, and is a comparison of something, in this case from the boat to the horses.