10 Weirdest Ways Famous Ancient Greeks Died

One of the three major tragedians of Classical Greek culture, Sophocles not only introduced innovations into the greek theatre, but also died in a most apt, if odd, fashion: forgetting to breathe during a dramatic monologue.

Reciting a particularly long sentence from one of his masterpieces (apparently it was Antigone), the then 90 year old Sophocles forgot his breathing, and died in the attempt.

Having written an estimated 120 plays in his lifetime, and in the Athenian festivals never coming in less than second place, it is fitting that the old playwright should have taken the performance of his own work so seriously as to expire in the attempted execution of a monologue.

Interestingly, there is another story involving a monologue in Sophocles' later life. His sons sought to have him declared legally incompetent and at trial he recited from his plays to prove otherwise. We can only hope that the same recital is not the one wherein he perished; that would be quite bad luck indeed, though not so bad as his Oedipus faces, in the grand scheme of things.