Fair enough: at first, the Odyssey feels a lot more murky than
clear. But if you look at learning Homeric style like learning a
new dialect, it won't take you long to get the hang of it. Once
you get past the initial strangeness, you'll see that Homer's
work is almost never complicated for its own sake. He just says
things in a very clear and direct way. Look at the very
beginning of the story: "Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways,
who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred
citadel" (1.1-2). In just those two lines, we're set up with a
hero (Odysseus) and a quest (getting home). Like we said, pretty
straightforward. This isn't just any poem: it's a Homeric epic.
And that means Homeric similes. These aren't just your typical,
"My love is like a red, red rose" type of simile. They're—how do
we say it?—epic. To create one, Homer follows three steps: 1)
saying what it is that whatever you're talking about is like,
usually some sort of an event; 2) describing the thing you're
comparing it to