As a farmhand runs a ditch from a dark spring, sluicing
the gushing stream through plants and gardens, swinging
his mattock to knock the clods out down the shoot
and the water rushes on, tearing the pebbles loose
and what began as a trickle hits a quick slope and
down it goes, outstripping the man who guides it –
so the relentless tide kept overtaking Achilles,
yes, for all his speed – gods are stronger than men.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 21, lines 290-297. In one of his amazingly detailed epic similes, Homer draws an image of a farmhand digging a water channel from a spring to his plants and gardens, the water starting off as a trickle and then gathering momentum and overtaking the man. The poet relates this to the river god Xanthus’s relentless tide overtaking Achilles in the river.