ż Dionysius had made his point: With great power and authority
come great fear and anxiety; rulers live in constant fear because
they have what others want. For the ancients, this parable’s
lesson is that power, wealth, and fame do not lead to a happy
life; it is virtue and a simpler life that make one happy.z Today, the phrase sword of Damocles refers to a situation of constant
and imminent peril. President John F. Kennedy used the phrase in
this sense in a 1961 address to the UN General Assembly: “Every
man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles,
hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any
moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness.”Gordian knot (noun phrase)
An exceedingly complicated and intricate problem or deadlock; an
intractable problem.z The phrase *RUGLDQNQRW comes to us from a myth about the people
of Phrygia. During a period of civil unrest, the Phrygians in the city
of Telmissus asked an oracle who would become their next ruler.
The oracle replied that the next man who entered the city riding an
ox cart would become the king.z That man was Gordius, who entered Telmissus with his wife and
his son, Midas. After being proclaimed king, Gordius dedicated his
ox cart to Zeus and tied the cart with an incredibly intricate knot
around the pin that connected the yoke to the chariot.z Later, another oracle foretold that whoever was able to undo the
Gordian knot would become ruler of all Asia. Not surprisingly,
would-be kings came from miles around to try to undo the knot, but
all of them failed.z Many years later, Alexander the Great attempted to untangle the knot.
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sliced through the knot with his sword or reached inside it and removed