Search Result for "damocles": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was (4th century BC); 



WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Damocles
    n 1: the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to
         legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was
         suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that
         being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it
         was (4th century BC)