Question

This is an excerpt from The Odyssey. I have to find a homeric simile in it,if there is one,and I've tried too hard, but I just can't find one...

'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.'

-MC

Answer 1

I don't know who the translator is, but the word that introduces a simile is missing.

<i>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. </i>

Answer 2

Translated by Robert Fitzgerald

But can you explain to me how this is a homeric simile?

Thanks
-MC

Answer 3

In a simile, Homer always used a completely different situation or thing or animal or <u>???</u> to explain something else thoroughly. The word "like" or "as" that we use in English is not always there, but the simile is clearly there.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Homeric%20simile

What two "things" are being compared with this simile?