Talk:Damocles

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 29 March 2021 and 11 June 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): KlicketyKlack. Peer reviewers: Random2187, SiegalSchwall70.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:00, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

plagiarized
This page is clearly plagiarized. Whats with the last sentence "compare the imagery with ..."? sounds ripped from a textbook. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.68.36.8 (talk) 03:57, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Directory?
I made Sword of Damocles redirect here. That clearly shouldn't be a disambugiation page for things that are named after the original. However, in time there should be a separate article for that. savidan(talk) (e@) 04:36, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Dictionary thinking: alphabetical entries for each sub-element. Encyclopedic thinking: synthesis of all closely related elements, set in context. Wikipedia is encyclopedic. --Wetman 23:16, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Simpson's Reference?
Is there some rule on Wikipedia that compels every single article to have a reference to The Simpsons, no matter how insignificant and obscure?I elliot 06:06, 7 October 2006 (UTC)


 * ROTFL. Kudos dude.  --Plumbago 07:56, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Simpson's Rule Voyager640 (talk) 06:30, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Rocky Horror Picture Show reference
It should be noted that the sword of Damocles is "referred to" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the song sung by Rocky immediately after his animation in Dr. Frank-N-Furter's lab. (I say, "referred to," because Rocky's song is actually titled, "Sword of Damocles", making it somewhat more than a mere "reference.")

Too much trivia
Removed the insane amounts of trivia on this article, se Trivia. Left the Kennedy quote, but created a new paragraph for it. -Kristod (talk)  22:04, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * But perhaps it would be worth mentioning that the sword of Damocles was mentioned in an episode of The Simpsons. I couldn't tell you the title of it or the plot of it, though. I just remember Mr. Burns saying something about keeping your enemies real close and dangling a little sword over a teddy bear. Anton Mravcek 23:35, 13 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually, if I remember, the Trivia advice says not to remove the trivia, but rather add the Trivia Template, and try and incorporate the trivia into the rest of the article. If not all of the trivia has been re-incorporated, please can you take it upon yourself to either add the remaining trivia into a trivia section with the template, or try and incorporate it into the rest of the text. Thank you. Bistromaths 14:56, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

"Greeking"
Very cute to have Damocles and Sword of Damocles in Greek. But since the source, Cicero, is Latin isn't this naively pretentious?--Wetman 15:34, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

South Australian Supreme Court Case
I'm removing this unless somebody objects. I'm sure the sword is mentioned in a lot of court cases "In Robertson v Swincer (1989) 52 SASR 356, a South Australian Supreme Court case, Justice Legoe used the metaphor 'sword of Damocles' to describe the effect of the imposition of the tort of negligence in relation to the duty of care of a parent to their child." --AW 15:05, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

SPECIAL AIR SERVICES REGIMENT
It is a matter of record that the famous 'Winged Dagger' badge is in fact a representation of the sword of Damocles - intended to be symbolic of the the Unit's association with dire threats- but when this was inserted, it was promptly removed. does anyone have any objections to this current use of the symbol ? STEALTH RANGER 07:31, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I do. Just because something is true doesn't mean that it is relevant. The sword of Damocles is a very common cultural metaphor, and listing all the times that it is merely used is impractical and uninformative. Information must be more than true, it must also be relevant. A bare-mention bit of trivia isn't relevant. --Eyrian 09:53, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi STEALTH RANGER. If you look at previous versions of this article you'll find a very large section on cultural references to the Sword of Damocles.  As judging which should be here/which should be removed is rather subjective, it's better to remove the entire section on cultural references.  However, that doesn't stop one from adding text to the article on the topic that references the Sword of Damocles.  That's a far more pertinent place to add it.  I hope that clarifies.  See also WP:TRIVIA.  Cheers, --Plumbago 09:58, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Story as told by wikiepdia
The tale seems overly complex and hard to understand. It has awkward squinting phrases and constructs, mentions names without introduction and goes into excessive detail on stupid stuff. Can anyone rewrite this part so everyone can comprehend it? Actually, this whole article could probably use a complete rewrite. EvanCarroll (talk) 17:26, 26 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I've fixed it up now. EvanCarroll (talk) 18:40, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Horribly Written 2nd Paragraph
I don't know what the last editor was on but I've never seen so many unnecessary commas in my life. If you have a breathing problem and frequently pause, you probably shouldn't write how you speak. I also took out the "Fine food and beautiful boys" part because I feel it sounds too subjective. Amenities is a much more appropriate and all-encompassing word.

Sixthcrusifix (talk) 19:54, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I've given it a bit of a polish. Altogether, it's not bad now. Probably won't get much better without major rewriting. Myles325a (talk) 03:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

sawed-off damocles
(The following from a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in 2008). My all-time favourite editorial disaster in a newspaper was a sports story in the deeply unlamented South China Sunday Post Herald in Hong Kong which referred to a basketball team's future being threatened under "a sawed-off Damocles", the author being under the misapprehension that the Damocles was a type of shot gun. Myles325a (talk) 01:16, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a word for these wonderfully mis-heard phrases, sometimes from hymns sung by children, but I can't remember it and it's infuriating! Can anyone help? The non-word "moldigrew" comes to mind, I think it was something vaguely sounding like that. PamD (talk) 09:22, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Found it - it's either a Mondegreen (that's the one I had in mind) or an Eggcorn! I went to one of my favourite websites, the splendid http://www.worldwidewords.org.uk, and searched for "malapropism" as the nearest concept for which I could remember the word, and found them that way - and was delighted that there are WP articles on both already. PamD (talk) 09:29, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Stop with the "Fine food" Garbage!
Would the freaking sicko who keeps adding back the "Fine food and beautiful boys" part just STOP WITH THE CRAP! Go put your homoerotic subjective bull crap in a trashy love novel because it does NOT belong in an encyclopedic article!

Regardless of the fictitious nature of the story, those terms are inappropriate for this article. (Unless it was a direct quote, in which case one should include QUOTATION MARKS.) Sixthcrusifix (talk) 15:10, 12 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Read the citation linked at the end of the sentence and stop being so obnoxious. 81.156.59.116 (talk) 12:06, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Indeed. I've just restored this text yet again.  The Cicero text cited by the article mentions the "boys", and the caption of the article's illustration of the story of Damocles also makes a point along these lines.  Admittedly, it's not the important part of the story of Damocles, but there's no good reason I can see for excluding it.  As for "homoerotic subjective bull crap", well, Ancient Greece is pretty well-known for its representation of homosexuality.  --P LUMBAGO  13:01, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The phrasing does not sound encyclopedic and I don't like it. Change it all you want, I have all the free time in the world. Whether or not food was "fine" or boys were "Beautiful" is something that a factual article cannot claim. Those are subjective inferences and don't belong in this article. Amenities covers any possible convenience that he experienced (Be it male lovers or great tasting food) and remains completely neutral. Sixthcrusifix (talk) 04:12, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

hanging over one's head
Isn't this legend where we get the phrase "hanging over his head"? As in, "jeez, I'd rather take the garbage out now, or it'll just hang over my head until it gets done." Minaker (talk) 09:12, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Link no longer working
The link to the museum image is no longer working. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.69.227.190 (talk) 20:41, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Dresden Files reference
There is a seemingly complex referral of Damocles in the Dresden Files, where he is held under something called "The Doom of Damocles", where, if he is found to be breaking any laws, it would fall upon him in swift and unavoidable justice. Akaossin —Preceding undated comment added 19:36, 11 November 2012 (UTC)
 * That's true, but I don't think it's notable enough for this article, even though I came here because of the Dresden Files reference. I think it would be best if the page that mentions the concept had a link back to this article, and that's what I'm going to do now. MjolnirPants   Tell me all about it.  14:59, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

What is "Conquest" referred to in the article?
In the following section: "In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer refers to the sword of Damocles, which the knight describes to hang over Conquest. When the knight describes the three temples, he also pays special attention to the paintings, noticing one on the walls of the temple of Mars, 'Above, where seated in his tower, /I saw Conquest depicted in his power/ There was a sharpened sword above his head / That hung there by the thinnest simple thread.' (Lines 2026-2030)[8]"

Diodorus Siculus
Just because Siculus is the only surviving version of the story in the 21st century doesn't mean that Cicero didn't have access to Timaeus. Who says that Cicero did not have access to Timaeus and what is their evidence? 71.178.191.144 (talk) 18:51, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect Dionysius referenced, review needed
I just made some edits and tried to fix the other pages, but I don't know how to update the images. There was a note on Dionysius II that Encyclopedia Britannica states the ruler was Dionysius I. I stayed up too late going down that rabbit hole, hopefully someone can check through all the other attributions for that? It should be Dionysius I in the anecdote.

References: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14988/14988-h/14988-h.htm#page-184 Book 5, XX, the tyrant of legend is married to Doris of Locria.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/16A*.html#6.2 Dionysius the elder had his son, Dionysius the younger, with his Locrian wife.

So from all the context Cicero was talking about the elder.

A lot of Dionysius references are ambiguous, saw a question on the Dante attribution, cited

Charles S. Singleton (1970-75), Inferno 12.107-108 https://dante.dartmouth.edu/search_view.php?doc=197051121071&cmd=gotoresult&arg1=1

(The Dionysius of Dante ruled for many years, D2's rule was relatively short)

I will try to review this another day, but some TLC on these pages seems needed. Allisonzor (talk) 06:40, 1 June 2023 (UTC)