Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor. The epic simile in this excerpt shows how helpless Odysseus’s men are in the clutches of the Cyclops. how violently and uncivilized the Cyclops behaves himself. that Cyclops is enormous in comparison to Odysseus and his men. that there is no possible escape for Odysseus and his men.