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Damocles
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Damocles

Greek courtier
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Flourished:
4th century bce
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Damocles (flourished 4th century bce) was a courtier of Dionysius I of Syracuse, in Sicily, tyrant from 405 to 367 bce. 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’s Tusculanae disputationes (“Conversations at Tusculum”), Book V.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.