Learning Lessons From the Past - The Sword of Damocles

I don't know whether the Sword of Damocles is still common knowledge today, but it once was. As a result of a comment in a recent Washington Post article, I received an email asking if I knew where most people in the Civil War (U.S.) era would have learned about the Sword of Damocles outside of Greek and Latin lessons.

Here's most of the first email:

"In today's Washington Post, an article by Brady Dennis on R2 - a special section on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War - he quotes from a diary entry (or letter) written on the Christmas Day before the start of the civil war 'I do not think that they (children opening their presents) realize as yet "The sword of Damocles" hanging over our heads...'

I know it was common in earlier American life to be familiar with Latin and Greek. But I was wondering if there may have been some common publication or event that popularized the 'sword of Damocles' story to the population during the Civil War period. I have looked at Wikipedia and googled - and haven't found a definitive answer - if there is one."

While I couldn't help him, I mentioned that I can't remember a time when I didn't know the story. This sent him hunting for collections of children's stories with the Sword of Damocles as one of the entries. While he found a reference for the early 20th century, which might actually be the story book my adults read to me, he hasn't found one going back to the Civil War.

"My first clue came when I came across a reference about James Baldwin (not the more contemporary author of the same name) and his 50 famous Stories Retold. He put together numerous books of various collections of stories for children - and Damocles was in 50 famous.... Your early learning of Damocles could had possibly came from one of his books."

Do you know where people in the Civil War era learned such lessons from the past?

Join Me on Facebook | Get My Twitter Updates