/lit/ - Literature

I'm reading book 11 and I noticed that many of the fighting analogies Homer used so far are related to pastoral life.
What struck me was that he doesn't hurry back to the main narrative - some of the analogies are 10-15 lines long, and as a result these entirely fleshed out fresh scenes get injected into the story and keep the energy level of the poem from flagging.
The effect is immediate and undeniable, I leave the killing fields for a few moments and find myself in the thick woods of a Grecian mountain, the dust gone and the screams, and I'm surrounded by greenery and wool, at least until the inevitable lion pounces on the flock and either breaks their necks in his jaws or gets chased away by the herdsmen and their dogs.
But I'm curious - why choose pastoral imagery as a counterpoint to the war? By pastoral I mean the word literally. I'm sure there are many other aspects of life in a village or a small town back then which didn't revolve around herds and their keeping, for example I've noticed very few analogies and images related to plants, harvesting or the crafts, and images of the everyday life inside a hut or cottage, or even an 'estate', are nonexistent.
Does anyone know why this is? I'm sure the first composers after the war could have drawn on a wider palette of experiences to illustrate the action for their audiences, and Homer is definitely a skilled enough poet to have sprinkled in some when consolidating the works into the Iliad.
What gives?