"Homer, like Milton, could not think of an army in motion without thinking of its resemblance to something else. Just before the Catalogue of the Ships, the movements of the armies are described by six detailed comparisons, B 455-483 : the brightness of their armor is compared with the gleam of fire upon the mountains ; their noisy tumult, with the clamor of s or swans on the Asian plain ; in multitude, they are as the innumerable leaves and flowers of spring-time; they are impetuous and bold as the eager flies around the farm buildings; they are marshalled by their leaders as flocks of goats by their herds; their leader () is like to Zeus, to Ares, to ,—he is preeminent among the heroes as a bull in a herd of cattle."