Comparison:
For the [NFL] 2023 season, which begins on Thursday, any player on the receiving team will be allowed to signal for a ‘fair catch‘ from anywhere between the goal line and his 25-yard line, rather than having to field the ball and face the wrath of the 11 players on the other team converging on him like a phalanx of hoplites.
When's the last time in the last six years you've pondered a “phalanx of hoplites?“ Yet, NYTimes opinion writer Matthew Walther hesitates not in offering the phrase to you just as he unapologetically offers “ataraxia,“ (which is a term/idea worth knowing). Similes rest on the assumption that you know the term or designation involved in a non-literal comparison. What happens when you don't know? As a comparison it may send you scrambling for a definition, or perhaps not if you're steeped in all things Hellenic. Nonetheless, Walther further ends his denunciation of a new NFL kickoff return rule with a Homer: “Homer captured the spirit of the N.F.L. when he dismissed mortality as beneath the concern of the great-souled: ‘Even as are the generations of leaves, such are those also of men. As for the leaves, the wind scattereth some upon the earth.‘“
Context:
This year, alas, my sense of tranquillity is being threatened by the N.F.L.’s decision to change the rules governing kickoffs.
Citation:
Walther, Matthew. “The N.F.L.’s New Kickoff Rule Is a Classically Terrible Idea.“ New York Times, 05 Sept. 2023. Web.
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