Rest on Your Laurels

Traces to ancient Greece, where wreaths made from laurel leaves were awarded to victors at the Pythian Games, an important precursor to the Olympics. The plant carried extra symbolic weight through its association with Apollo, tied to the myth of the nymph Daphne, who transformed into a laurel tree to escape his pursuit; Apollo wore laurel ever after in her memory. Over time, "laurels" became shorthand in English for any hard-earned honour or achievement, and "resting" on them, rather than building on them, took on its modern, faintly critical edge: enjoying past success instead of pushing further.