Odyssey 5.432 · Book 5, lines 432–435
Like an octopus torn from its hole
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ὡς δʼ ὅτε πουλύποδος θαλάμης ἐξελκομένοιο πρὸς κοτυληδονόφιν πυκιναὶ λάιγγες ἔχονται, ὣς τοῦ πρὸς πέτρῃσι θρασειάων ἀπὸ χειρῶν ῥινοὶ ἀπέδρυφθεν· τὸν δὲ μέγα κῦμα κάλυψεν.
As when an octopus is dragged from its lair and thick pebbles cling to its suckers, so the skin was torn from his bold hands against the rocks; and the great wave covered him over.
Word by word
The setting
Homer halts the action for a simile — the kind of close-up the epic reserves for its sharpest moments — to show exactly what the rock did to Odysseus's hands.
A note on this passage
The simile does what a wide shot cannot. In a single homely image from the fisherman's world, we are made to see the skin left on the stone: pebbles stuck in an octopus's suckers, ripped away with the creature. Then the plain line returns — the wave closes over him — and the picture is complete.
What the comparison quietly insists on is grip. The octopus clings; Odysseus clings; both leave part of themselves behind rather than let go. His hands are called 'bold,' θρασειάων, even as they are flayed. The image praises the very tenacity it shows being punished — his refusal to release the rock is both what saves him and what costs him his skin.
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