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Damocles
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Damocles (lived 4th century BC)

In classical legend, a courtier of the elder Dionysius, ruler of Syracuse, Sicily. When Damocles made too much of his sovereign's good fortune, Dionysius invited him to a feast where he symbolically hung a sword over Damocles' head by a single horse-hair to demonstrate the precariousness of the happiness of kings.



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Whether we are speaking of literature for children or education in general, the word multiculturalism is as omnipresent (and, to some, as ominous) as the proverbial Damoclean sword that hung by a thread over an ancient king, reminding him how tenuous life -- and power -- can be.
All our relations by Bruchac, Joseph / The Horn Book Magazine
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