They closed ranks, they packed like a stone wall,
a granite cliff that towers against the churning surf,
standing up to the screaming winds, their sudden assaults
and the breaking waves they spawn that crash against its base –
so the Danaans stood the Trojan onslaught, rock-solid
and never flinched in fear.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 15, lines 717-722. Heroically holding their line by their ships against the Trojan onslaught, the Achaeans are compared in an epic simile to a granite cliff standing up to the churning suft and roaring winds.