phrase
Greek
Sword of Damocles
An imminent, possibly catastrophic risk hanging over someone otherwise enjoying their position.
Origin
Recorded by Cicero. Damocles flattered the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse on the joys of being powerful. Dionysius invited him to switch places for a day; Damocles enjoyed the throne until he noticed a sword suspended above his head by a single horsehair. He asked to leave. The moral: power and ease are always shadowed by what could fall.
Modern usage
Common in journalism and policy writing for any looming threat that constrains a leader's freedom — nuclear war, recession, lawsuit, scandal. JFK invoked it in a 1961 UN speech on nuclear weapons, which fixed it in 20th-century English.
In the wild
The lawsuit hangs over the company like a sword of Damocles.— legal journalism
Tags
threat
power
anxiety