blood, sweat and tears

The story

Popularized through a famous speech made by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons in 1940, with slight modification, but already present in earlier poetry. More information May be an extension of a much older Indo-European poetic formula “blood and tears”; compare e.g. Hittite 𒂊𒌍𒄩𒉌 𒅖𒄩𒄴𒊒𒌑𒄿 (e-eš-ḫa-ni iš-ḫa-aḫ-ru-ú-i, “in blood [and] in tear(s)”). It is common in Indo-European oral traditions to juxtapose three bodily substances pertaining to a certain theme, such as “flesh, bone and marrow” for the internal solids (cf. Calin (2017), pages 143–146).