But when Odysseus sprang up, the famed tactician
would just stand there, staring down, hard,
his eyes fixed on the ground,
never shifting his scepter back and forth,
clutching it stiff and still like a mindless man.
You’d think him a sullen fellow or just plain fool.
But when he let loose that great voice from his chest
and the words came piling on like a driving winter blizzard –
then no man alive could rival Odysseus! Odysseus…
we no longer gazed in wonder at his looks.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 3, lines 260-269. Antenor, one of the wisest of the Trojan elders, is speaking to King Priam of Troy about how commanding the great Achaean warrior Odysseus is. Remarking on Odysseus’s incredible speaking ability, he says that no man alive can rival him. We are told that words come piling on like a driving winter blizzard (simile).