Ancient Greeks kept coming up with some pretty bizarre ways to depart for Hades. I'll mention two:
The founder of modern drama was a chap named Aeschylus. He's considered the founder because he wrote the earliest surviving play: The Persians. There were certainly earlier playwrights, among them Thespis, from whom we get the word thespian for an actor, but all their works are lost.
Aeschylus moved to Sicily in his final years. That was a pretty common thing to do, because in those days Sicilians were nouveau riche but culture poor; they had plenty of money to entice famous artists.
We know for sure that Aeschylus was balding in his old age, because of the odd nature of his end.
Aeschylus was walking along one day when an eagle passed overhead. Eagles like to eat turtles, but the shell is a problem. The eagles solve that problem by flying high, then dropping the turtle-victim onto rocks to crack it open.
This particular eagle passing by Aeschylus mistook the playwright's balding pate for a stone. He let go the turtle in his claws. Aeschylus thus became the first and, as far as I know only, great writer to be struck down by a plummeting turtle.
Aeschylus not only founded drama, but set the standard for tragic writer deaths. There were three great tragedians of the ancient age, the other two being Sophocles and Euripides.
Not to be outdone, Euripides moved to Macedonia at the invitation of the royal court. Where he went for a walk. And was promptly torn to pieces by wild dogs.
Clearly writers should avoid exercise.
The founder of modern drama was a chap named Aeschylus. He's considered the founder because he wrote the earliest surviving play: The Persians. There were certainly earlier playwrights, among them Thespis, from whom we get the word thespian for an actor, but all their works are lost.
Aeschylus moved to Sicily in his final years. That was a pretty common thing to do, because in those days Sicilians were nouveau riche but culture poor; they had plenty of money to entice famous artists.
We know for sure that Aeschylus was balding in his old age, because of the odd nature of his end.
Aeschylus was walking along one day when an eagle passed overhead. Eagles like to eat turtles, but the shell is a problem. The eagles solve that problem by flying high, then dropping the turtle-victim onto rocks to crack it open.
This particular eagle passing by Aeschylus mistook the playwright's balding pate for a stone. He let go the turtle in his claws. Aeschylus thus became the first and, as far as I know only, great writer to be struck down by a plummeting turtle.
Aeschylus not only founded drama, but set the standard for tragic writer deaths. There were three great tragedians of the ancient age, the other two being Sophocles and Euripides.
Not to be outdone, Euripides moved to Macedonia at the invitation of the royal court. Where he went for a walk. And was promptly torn to pieces by wild dogs.
Clearly writers should avoid exercise.
