I love this passage from the Iliad, spoken during a standoff between Achilleus and Aineias, for the humorous and accurate simile, and for the sobering reminder of the need to tame my tongue (James 3).
The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there of every kind, the range of words is wide, and their variance. The sort of thing you say is the thing that will be said to you. But what have you and I to do with the need for squabbling and hurling insults at each other, as if we were two wives who when they have fallen upon a heart-perishing quarrel go out in the street and say abusive things to each other, much true, and much that is not, and it is their rage that drives them.
