Greek Pantheonweapon
Sword of Damocles
- Psychological Terror
- Symbol of Peril
- Truth Revelation
A blade suspended by a single horsehair above the throne, symbolizing the constant peril faced by those in power. It represents the anxiety and danger that accompany great authority.
About Sword of Damocles
Cicero's Syracusan anecdote
The hanging sword is not Homeric and not a hero's blade. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.61, tells how Dionysius of Syracuse seated the courtier Damocles beneath a sword hung by a horsehair, to show what a tyrant's luck felt like. The court is Sicilian Greek; the surviving telling is Latin moral philosophy. No divine smith, no temple, no relic. Later European proverb and painting keep the image of power's anxiety. It sits among Greek-named objects only because Syracuse is a Greek city; the source is Cicero, not the Iliad.
Origin
Hung by King Dionysius to teach the courtier Damocles about the true nature of a ruler's life.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.61
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
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