Damocles

a courtier of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. He lived in the first half of the fourth century before Christ. He had so much to say of the grandeur and happiness of kings, and was so given to flattery, that Dionysius prepared a surprise for him. Inviting him to sup, and placing him in a royal seat, he caused him to look upward in the very midst of the hilarity to behold a keen sword suspended above his head by a single hair. This quite altered Damocles' view of royal life, and gave him a sudden sense of the apprehension of danger under which rulers live. An allusion to the sword of Damocles is a well worn figure used to denote an impending danger that takes away the power of present enjoyment.