The heart inside you is always tempered hard.
like an ax that goes through wood when a shipwright
cuts out ship timbers with every ounce of skill
and the blade’s weight drives the man’s stroke.
So the heart inside your chest is never daunted.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 3, lines 72-76. Paris praises Hector’s resolution. In an epic simile, he describes Hector’s heart as being tempered hard like a axe used by a shipwright to cut out ship timbers.