Literary notes about adamantine (AI summary)
The term adamantine in literature is employed to evoke a sense of indestructible strength and determination both in physical objects and abstract human qualities. Writers invoke it to describe unyielding materials—as seen in descriptions of iron-like breastplates or celestial vaults [1, 2, 3]—while equally using it to illustrate resolute convictions and unshakeable principles [4, 5, 6]. This versatility extends to portrayals of rigid bonds in relationships or societal structures [7, 8] and even to characterize the celestial and mythical, from the unbreakable chains of fate to the steadfast spheres in the heavens [9, 10]. Ultimately, adamantine serves as a powerful metaphor for all that is enduring, unbending, and eternal across various literary contexts.
- His iron breast has met with others as adamantine as his own.
— from The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter - “Stands the vault adamantine Until the Doomsday; The wine-cup shall ferry Thee o’er it away.”
— from Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Salámán and Absál
Together with a Life of Edward Fitzgerald and an Essay on Persian Poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Omar Khayyam - These shining on, in long procession come To Jove's eternal adamantine dome.
— from The Iliad by Homer - What I said then is now made fast in adamantine bonds.
— from Gorgias by Plato - I have assailed thy resolution in vain, and mine own is fixed as the adamantine decrees of fate.”
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - The truths they held were clear, clean-cut, adamantine, foundational, and unchangeable.
— from Sketches of the Covenanters by J. C. (James Calvin) McFeeters - The band of marriage is adamantine—no hope of loosing it; thou art undone.
— from How to be Happy Though Married: Being a Handbook to Marriage by E. J. (Edward John) Hardy - The band of conjugal love is adamantine.—9.
— from John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address by John F. (John Fitzgerald) Kennedy - To count them all, demands a thousand tongues, A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs.
— from The Iliad by Homer - The only God that nature points to is an adamantine Fate.
— from The Religious SentimentIts Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science andPhilosophy of Religion by Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton