Cicero used this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples for concluding his fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that having virtue is sufficient for living a happy life.

More generally, it is used to denote the sense of foreboding engendered by a precarious situation,[11] especially one in which the onset of tragedy is restrained only by a delicate trigger or chance.

William Shakespeare's Henry IV expands on this theme: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown";[12] compare the Hellenistic and Roman imagery connected with the insecurity offered by Tyche and Fortuna.

In this appeal to his friend and patron, the aristocratic Gaius Maecenas, Horace describes the Siculae dapes or "Sicilian feasts" as providing no savory pleasure to the man, "above whose impious head hangs a drawn sword (destrictus ensis).

United States President John F. Kennedy compared the omnipresent threat of nuclear annihilation to a sword of Damocles hanging over the people of the world.

[17] Woodcut images of the sword of Damocles as an emblem appear in 16th- and 17th-century European books of devices, with moralizing couplets or quatrains, with the import METUS EST PLENUS TYRANNIS.

[18] A small vignette shows Damocles under a canopy of state, at the festive table, with Dionysius seated nearby;[19] the etching, with its clear political moral, was later used to illustrate the idea.

The sword of Damocles frequently appears in popular culture, including novels, feature films, television series, video games, and music.

The sword of Damocles is an oft-used symbol in modern hip hop, an allusion used to impart the threat "kingly" rappers face of being deposed as the best of the best.