As Diomedes and Odysseus start to pursue Dolon, they are compared to hunting dogs chasing after prey. Scott (1974:72–73) has identified hunting as a traditional subject matter for Homeric similes. In several similes, dogs accompanying hunters may confront powerful animals such as lions or boars (e.g. Iliad 8.337–342, 11.292–295, 12.41–49). But other similes are closer to what we have here: dogs chasing after weaker, non-predatory animals such as fawns or hares. In two similes in the Iliad that have this structure, at Iliad 15.579–581 (Antilokhos pouncing on Melanippos) and Iliad 22.188–193 (Achilles pursuing Hektor), a fawn has been chased from its lair (ἐξ εὐνῆφι, Iliad 15.580; ἐξ εὐνῆς, Iliad 22.190). We have seen above (10.5–9) how the adjective pukinos connects the ideas of an animal’s lair and ambush, and εὐνή means a ‘lair’ for a fawn, but a ‘bed’ for humans, further connecting the idea to night and sleeping. The animal in this simile has not explicitly been chased from its lair, but the association may be a traditional one for this kind of hunting simile, and it reverses the position of the ambusher and the ambushed, just as Dolon’s position of spy has now been reversed to the one being spied.
We can also compare this simile to the one likening the watchmen to guard dogs at 10.180–189. Although both similes compare the men to dogs, we can see in the differences of detail how similes are attached to and elaborate themes in this oral tradition (see also 10.5–9 for our detailed discussion of Homeric similes). At 10.180–189 the theme is one of being on the defensive against a night attack. Here, the Achaeans are the ones on the attack, and so the simile shows dogs acting in a different manner. That dogs are featured as the vehicle in both instances shows the flexibility and multiformity of Homeric similes.