L' ÉPÉE DE DAMOCLÈS. Tu ne te plaindras pas de manques en ce jour De couteaux pour diner , dit le tyran aimable. Ma foi! fit Damoclès, si c'est un calembourg Je trouve que la pointe est fort détestable Titre académique de Mr. Patin.

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

The waiter asks Damocles if he needs a sword with which to eat his lunch. Damocles does not find the joke funny. During the 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.