which was plainly suggested by Homer, iv., 275:--

[Greek: hos d' hot apo skopiaes eide nephos aipolos anaer
erchomenon kata ponton hupo Zephuroio i_oaes tps de t' aneuthen eonti,
melanteron aeute pissa, phainet ion kata ponton, agei de te lailapa
pollaen.]

(As when a goat-herd from some hill-peak sees a cloud coming across
the deep with the blast of the west wind behind it; and to him, being
as he is afar, it seems blacker, even as pitch, as it goes along the
deep, bringing with it a great whirlwind.)


So again the fine simile in 'Elaine', beginning

Bare as a wild wave in the wide North Sea,


is at least modelled on the simile in 'Iliad', xv., 381-4, with
reminiscences of the same similes in 'Iliad', xv., 624, and 'Iliad',
iv., 42-56. The simile in the first section of the 'Princess',

As when a field of corn
Bows all its ears before the roaring East,


reminds us of Homer's

[Greek: hos d' ote kinaesae Zephyros Bathulaeion, elthon labros,