10 Famous People Who Suffered Death By Irony
5. Thales Of Miletus Dies Of Thirst
Thales of Miletus was a Greek mathematician and philosopher who espoused the belief that water was the originating principle of nature, essentially making it the most important substance in the world.
The very basic idea of the theory is that water provides the nourishment for all living things and that even things that are hot are created by water and have their state changed by it.
Beyond that he is often hailed as the first true Greek mathematician and his work was commented on - and often revered - by such notable Greeks as Aristotle. It is believed that he laid down some of the basics of geometry that later mathematicians built upon.
While there is much conjecture about the way that he died, according to Diogenes Laertius - a biographer of the Greek philosophers - he passed while watching a gymnastics contest. Laertius states that exhaustion caused by dehydration led to Thales' death.
As such, the man who so strongly espoused water as the first principle died due to a lack of it.