Damʹoclēsʹ Sword

Evil foreboded or dreaded. Damʹoclēs, the sycophant of Dionysius the elder, of Syracuse, was invited by the tyrant to try the felicity he so much envied. Accordingly he was set down to a sumptuous banquet, but overhead was a sword suspended by a hair. Damoclēs was afraid to stir, and the banquet was a tantalising torment to him. (Cicero.)

“These fears hang like Damoclesʹ sword over every feast, and make enjoyment impossible.”—Chambers’s Cyclopœdia.