There are many instructive stories in the writings of the Roman writer and orator Cicero. His five-volume work "Tuskulan Conversations" was widely known. It is there that the author cites the legend about the Syracuse ruler Dionysius the Elder and one of his entourage. This story is largely known for the phraseological unit "sword of Damocles".
The envious Damocles and the tyrant Dionysius
Cicero's Tuskulan Conversations differ from his other works not only in form, but also in content. This is a kind of lecture notes intended for a large audience. The author consistently expounds his point of view on issues of concern to both him and many educated people of that time.
Cicero considered the central problem of philosophical knowledge to be the problem of finding a happy life and possible ways to achieve it.
One of the fragments of the work of the Roman author contains an instructive legend about the tyrant Dionysius the Elder, who ruled in Syracuse at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, and his approximate named Damocles. All the courtiers knew that Damocles secretly envied Dionysius and always spoke of the tyrant with admiration and servility. The courtier considered his ruler the happiest person who, during the years of his reign, achieved everything that a person could wish for.
Dionysius the Elder knew about the hidden envy on the part of Damocles. Driven by the desire to teach a lesson to his favorite and secret envious, the tyrant once made a gorgeous feast, to which he invited Damocles, seating him in his place. In the midst of the fun, Damocles saw with horror that a massive and heavy sword was hanging directly above him.
The sharp blade held on only to one thin horse hair, ready to fall on the head of the courtier.
Dionysius, who watched Damocles' reaction, turned to the assembled guests and said that at the moment Damocles, who envied him, felt what he, the ruler of Syracuse, experiences every hour - a feeling of constant anxiety and fear for his life. Therefore, it makes no sense to envy the position of a tyrant.
Sword of Damocles - a symbol of the impending threat
It was this oral tradition that laid the foundation for the use of the phraseologism "sword of Damocles" and other similar images. This stable combination literally means "hanging by a thread", "being one step away from death." When they say that the sword of Damocles hangs over a person, they mean that a person experiences a constant and invisible threat, ready at any moment to turn into a real and quite tangible misfortune.
The sword of Damocles has become a kind of symbol of all the dangers that a person is exposed to in his life, even if for an outside observer his existence seems cloudless and happy. The sword of Damocles is the emblem of the danger hanging severely over a person, threatening his life.
