And seventeen days he sailed, making headway well;
on the eighteenth, shadowy mountains slowly loomed…
the Phaeacians’ island reaching toward him now,
over the misty breakers, rising like a shield.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 305-308. After building a raft and setting sail from Calypso’s island, Odysseus finally sees the land of Phaeacia. In a simile it is compared to a shield rising over the waves.