And now Athena, looming out of the rafters high above them,
brandished her man-destroying shield of thunder, terrifying
the suitors out of their minds, and down the hall they panicked –
wild, like herds stampeding, driven mad as the darting gadfly
strikes in the late spring when the long days come round.
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 22, lines 311-315. After protecting Odysseus by deflecting spears and arrows, Athena now wields her shield of thunder high above the suitors. She sends them into a panic down the hall. In an epic simile, the terrified and fleeing suitors are compared to herds stampeding after being driven demented by biting flies. Athena, by joining by Odysseus and Telemachus’ side as Mentor, has turned the tide of the battle in their favor.