Question

I'm still having some trouble figuring out the homeric simile in this:

What a dear welcome thing life seems to children
whose father, in the extremity, recovers
after some weakening and malignant illness:
his pangs are gone, the gods have delivered him.

What two things are being comapred? Is it life, and....? Please help

Thanks
-MC

Answer 1

'Two nights, two days, in the solid deep sea-swell
he drifted, many times awaiting death,
until with shining ringlets in the East
the dawn confirmed a third day, breaking clear
over a high and windless sea; and mounting
a rolling wave he caught a glimpse of land.
What a dear welcome thing life seems to children
whose father, in the extremity, recovers
after some weakening and malignant illness:
his pangs are gone, the gods have delivered him.
So dear and welcome to Odysseus
the sight of land, of woodland, on that morning.'


Isn't he comparing the sight of land with life, and deliverance from the Gods?

Answer 2

I guess. thanks

-MC