Those waves, they break. . . .
Go and persuade the sea wave not to break.
You will persuade me no more easily.
--Prometheus to Zeus after he had bound cunning Prometheus to a mountain with adamantine chains, telling him that a terrible eagle will eat his liver each day only to have it regenerate and suffer the same fate again on the next day for 30,000 years if Prometheus fails to tell him the name of the woman who will bear the son destined to dethrone Zeus [Hesiod's Theogony].
Furthermore, Phish lyrics:
I am just a tiny wave, a minor ripple out at sea,
moving slowly towards the shore, burdened with uncertainty.
I'm gaining power, losing speed, wondering as I near your door:
will you hold it open for the tidal wave approaching shore?