Damocles

Damocles
—Damoclean /dam'euh klee"euhn/, adj.
/dam"euh kleez'/, n.
1. a flatterer who, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was seated at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a single hair to show him the perilous nature of that happiness.
2. sword of Damocles, any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.

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flourished 4th century BC

Member of the court of Dionysius I the Elder at Syracuse in Sicily.

Legend holds that when Damocles spoke in extravagant terms of Dionysius's happiness, the sovereign responded by inviting Damocles to a banquet and seating him beneath a sword suspended by a thread, thereby demonstrating the precarious fortunes of people who hold power.

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▪ Greek courtier
flourished 4th century BC

      a courtier of Dionysius I of Syracuse, in Sicily, tyrant from 405 to 367 BC. The courtier is known to history through the legend of the “Sword of Damocles.”

      According to the legend, when Damocles spoke in extravagant terms of his sovereign's happiness, Dionysius invited him to a sumptuous banquet and seated him beneath a naked sword that was suspended from the ceiling by a single thread. Thus did the tyrant demonstrate that the fortunes of men who hold power are as precarious as the predicament in which he had placed his guest. The story is related in Cicero (Cicero, Marcus Tullius)'s Tusculanae disputationes (“Conversations at Tusculum”), Book V.

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  • Damocles — For other uses, see Damocles (disambiguation). In Richard Westall s Sword of Damocles, 1812, the boys of Cicero s anecdote have been changed to maidens for a neoclassical patron, Thomas Hope. Damocles ( …   Wikipedia

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