Simile- Max

Athena had been longing for action.
She flashed down from the peaks of Olympus

Like a star that the son of devious Cronus
Sends as a portent to sailors, or to an army
Camped on a wide plain, a brilliant meteor
That sheds sparks all along its shining furrow.

Lines 83-88, Book 4 (Lombardo Translation)

The tenor in this simile is simple: Athena rushing down from Olympus to the battlefield to induce a fight between the Greeks and Trojans and end the ceasefire that had been momentarily caused by the duel between Menelaus and Paris. Athena whisks down Olympus to tell Pandarus to fire at Menelaus and initiate combat between the two troops, thus settling the quarrel between Zeus and Hera.

Homer uses a meteor and a shooting star as the vehicle to represent Athena as she "rockets" down Olympus across the sky. As the men are trooped on the wide plain, this hazardous sight that looms as trouble shines down, probably from the direction of Mount Olympus sending a message from the Gods that trouble is around the corner, spreading rumors like sparks amongst the troops in its "shining furrow."

This simile, however short it might be and it's meaning plain, induces such a reaction from the reader that creates suspense as to how she is going to induce fighting amongst the troops. What portent is she going to send the troops symbolically or physically? Homer indirectly acknowledges Zeus as THE son of Cronus, not including Poseidon or Hades, his other sons. This simile is part of the group of "natural weather" similes that occur throughout the epic, such as the one in lines 294-299 about stormy clouds looming over a goatherd that represents the introduction of the Greek captains that wreaks fear into the "goatherd", or Trojans.