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Damocles and his Sword are figures from Greek legend. Damocles was a courtier who was complimenting a tyrant. The tyrant offered to switch places with him for a day, to which Damocles agrees. The day seems to be going all well for Damocles...until dinner, when he looks up to see a very heavy and very sharp sword being suspended over his head by a hair. The sword is symbolic of the constant risk of life the tyrant faces every day because he is king.

If someone says you have the Sword of Damocles over your head, it means your position puts you at constant risk of your life; death can come from anywhere at anytime. Kings and other heads of state always have to watch their backs because being in power makes them targets (it is not hard to look up royal and presidential assassinations). It could also apply more generally to a person in constant fear of being killed (such as an undercover operative in enemy territory).

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14y ago
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1w ago

Having the sword of Damocles hanging over your head means being in a situation where you have a constant threat or danger looming over you. It signifies a feeling of imminent peril or risk.

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Q: What does it mean to have the sword of damocles hanging over your head?
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It's a reference to the Sword of Damocles, a Greek legend. In the story, Damocles told his emperor how lucky he was to be a powerful ruler, and the emperor offered to switch places for a while. After a wonderful feast, where he was treated like royalty for the first time in his life, Damocles happened to look up -- where he saw a sharpened sword, hanging by a single horsehair. Suddenly, the good life didn't look so good anymore. The message was that any privilege comes with a price: the threat that it could all be taken away, by a single act of carelessness or even random chance. In modern usage, 'hanging by a thread' has come to mean being a very short distance away from something bad happening; and 'the sword over your head' also stands for the idea that with power also comes the burden of wielding that power responsibly.


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