the.com/sword of damocles
A threat so constant you forget it's hanging there until it isn't.
means An impending disaster that could strike at any moment, looming over someone even in the midst of good fortune.
from From an ancient Greek anecdote told by Cicero: Damocles, a courtier, gushed over how enviable it must be to be king. So the king let him sit on the throne for a day — but suspended a sword above his head by a single hair, to teach him that power comes bundled with constant, hanging peril.
- origin
- Cicero's tale of a flatterer seated under a horsehair-slung blade
- the lesson
- power looks great until you notice the ceiling
- modern use
- any looming disaster everyone pretends not to see
- the twist
- Damocles begged to leave the throne immediately