The Angst of Damocles

Cicero records for us an account between Dionysius and a contemporary, Damocles. The narrative is prefaced with the claim: "Dionysius himself pronounced judgment on whether he was happy or not."

The story goes that Damocles was visiting Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracus. Damocles begins talking about all the possessions and advantages of the tyrant's life ... "his wealth and power, the splendours of his despotic regime, the immensity of his resources ..." et cetera. Damocles concludes, "Never ... had there been a happier man."

Seizing the opportunity, Dionysius responds, "Very well, Damocles ... since my life strikes you as so attractive, would you care to have a taste of it yourself and see what my way of living is really like?" Damocles agrees with pleasure.

So Dionysius brings out a golden couch covered in rich embroidery, gold and silver, perfumes, and an elaborate feast. Then Cicero records:

Damocles thought himself a truly fortunate person. But in the midst of all this splendour, directly above the neck of the happy man, Dionysius arranged that a gleaming sword should be suspended from the ceiling, to which it was attached by a horsehair. And so Damocles had no eye for the lovely waiters, or for the artistic plate. Indeed, he did not even feel like reaching out his hand towards the food .... In the end he begged the tyrant to let him go, declaring that his desire to be happy had quite evaporated.

Cicero tells us that, "Dionysius was indicating clearly enough that happiness is out of the question if you are perpetually menaced by some terror."

This reminds me of an assertion made by Anticlimacus, that each person hides a certain inner angst. Certainly death waits for all of us. If we all dred something - if there is some terror we are all running from - then what is happiness and the accumulation of many physical, external things but a distraction from that terror?