Question

In a smithy

one sees a white-hot axehead or an adze
plunged and wrung in a cold tub, screeching steam–
the way they make soft iron hale and hard–:
just so that eyeball hissed around the spike.
-The Odyssey,
Homer

Based on the epic simile, how should the poem’s listener picture the Cyclops’s eye?

A. like a smithy’s shop full of interesting tools

B. like a soft, cold piece of iron

C .like a hissing piece of hot metal in cold water

Answer 1

The answer will be C like a hissing piece of hot metal in cold water

Answer 2

C would be the proper simile. Just like taking a hot axehead and plunging it into cold water, Odysseus plunged the spike into the Cyclops's eye, leading to a hissing sound as it was being punctured.