For the Greeks, it's more a literary trope than an actual Thing That Happened. More can always be said, and further input is welcome from other areas of the world, so if anyone would like to put their oar in, please don't let this post stop you!

For the meantime, OP, I commend to your attention u/Iphikrates' looking at how the Greeks did this sort of thing, with a bit of extra analysis in this thread.