Work like a Trojan
To work like a Trojan means to work very hard and to call someone a Trojan or a real Trojan is to commend someone on a job well done. As mentioned in both Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid, the Trojans were renowned as hardworking, industrious people. During the 19th century, the Victorian admiration for these classical times saw the advent of these expressions, which are first attested from c. 1846.