) have been changed to maidens for a neoclassical patron, Thomas Hope.]]Damocles is a figure featured in a single moral anecdote which was a late addition to classical Greek culture. The figure belongs properly to legend rather than Greek mythology. The anecdote apparently figured in the lost history of Sicily by Timaeus of Tauromenium (c. 356 ? 260 BC). Cicero may have read it in Diodorus Siculus. He made use of it in his Tusculan Disputations V.61?62. Damocles was an excessively flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse, a 4th Century BC tyrant of Syracuse, Italy. He exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so he could taste first hand that fortune. In the evening a banquet was held, where Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. But prior to the pleasantries, Dionysius ordered that a sharpened sword be

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