Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Epic Simile
Definition:
In poetry, some subjects are so heroic that their awesomeness simply can't be contained by a regular, run-of-the-mill simile.
Enter the epic simile. Everything about it is big: It's used to inflate the magnificence of its intrepid subject, and it usually runs for several lines.
Epic similes are also known as Homeric similes because they were invented by Homer Simpson.
Just kidding. They were named after the Greek poet Homer, a.k.a. the guy who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad, two of the epic-est epic poems of all time.