Like a tawny lion when hounds and country field hands
drive him out of their steadings filled with cattle –
they’ll never let him tear the rich fat from the oxen,
all night long they stand guard but the lion craves meat,
he lunges in and in but his charges gain him nothing,
thick-and-fast from their hardy arms the javelins
rain down in his face, and waves of blazing torches –
these the big cat fears, balking for all his rage,
and at dawn he slinks away, his spirits dashed.
So Ajax slowly drew back from the Trojans,
spirits dashed, and much against his will.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 11, lines 644-654. Hector and his men force Great Ajax to slowly retreat. The giant Greek warrior is depicted as a dispirited lion driven back by hounds and field hands in one of Homer’s powerful epic similes.