The Iliad 12.164–172

for I deemed not that the Achaean warriors would stay our might and our invincible hands. But they like wasps of nimble557.1 waist, or bees that have made their nest in a rugged path, and leave not their hollow home, but abide, and in defence of their young ward off hunter folk; even so these men, though they be but two, are not minded to give ground from the gate, till they either slay or be slain.