Saying one thing through another, without a word of comparison: instead of saying that something is like another thing, one says it is. The image transfers to the subject the qualities of the thing with which it has been identified.
In the Iliad
Hector, you are for me father, reverend mother and brother, and you are my young husband.
Andromache identifies her husband with father, mother, and brother: "you are for me father, reverend mother and brother." The fusion of family roles in one person shows how much he is all that remains to her.
Book VI: Hector and Andromache, Andromache
and then the Father stretched out the golden balance; in it he set two Keres, the fates of death that strikes down, one for the horse-taming Trojans and one for the Achaeans in bronze tunics; he took it at the middle and lifted it: the fated day of the Achaeans tipped downward.
Book VIII: The Battle Interrupted, the narrator
for now, for all the Achaeans, it hangs on the edge of a razor: either a pitiful ruin, or life.
Patroclus lies, and around the naked body men fight; and the armor, Hector of the gleaming helmet has it. So he spoke, and a black cloud of grief covered Achilles.
Book XVIII: Achilles' Shield, Antilochus
Changeable is the tongue of mortals, and in it are words of every kind, and the pasture of words is wide on either side. Whatever word you say, such you will hear.
Book XX: The Battle of the Gods, Aeneas
for two jars lie on the floor of Zeus, of gifts, of those he gives: one of evils, the other of goods. For him to whom Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt, gives them mixed, he meets now with an evil, now with a good.
Book XXIV: The Ransom of Hector, Achilles
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