The Naked Lion

This seems like a good place to store my favorite Homer quotes, so here is one from my reading today.

In Odyssey Book 6, Odysseus lies unconscious after being shipwrecked on the island of the Phaeacians. Aroused from oblivion by the shouts of Nausicaa and her handmaids at play, he struggles to shed his mind of cobwebs as he ponders his location. He emerges from the heavy brush, grabbing a leafy branch to hide his nakedness, and as Homer describes it:

βῆ δ᾽ ἴμεν ὥς τε λέων ὀρεσίτροφος ἀλκὶ πεποιθώς,
ὅς τ᾽ εἶσ᾽ ὑόμενος καὶ ἀήμενος, ἐν δέ οἱ ὄσσε
δαίεται· (Odyssey 6.130-131)

(But he went, going as a mountain-reared lion, sure in his prowess,
who goes, whipped by rain and wind, fire blazing in his two eyes;)

Somehow the juxtaposition of a naked man holding a leaf over his privates with the simile of a lion is at once humorous and noble to me. In any case, it sounds much better in Homer's words and rhythm.