23. The Greatest Olympic Champion’s Sticky Stuck End
Not only was Milo of Croton a great athlete, he was also a great warrior. In 510 BC, the tyrant of nearby Sybaris banished some of its leading citizens, and was offended when Croton offered them asylum. Things escalated, especially after the philosopher Pythagoras, who spent much of his time in Croton, urged its citizens to use the dispute as a pretext to destroy Sybaris. War eventually broke out, and Milo led the forces of Croton to victory, decked out in his Olympic crowns, a lion skin, and armed with a club like Hercules.
Milo’s remarkable life came to a bizarre end one day when he went out for a stroll through the woods, and came upon a tree trunk that had been partially split with wedges. Always on the lookout for opportunities to challenge himself with feats of strength, Milo tried to rend the tree apart with his bare hands. However, the wedges fell off and his hands got stuck in the crack. It was bad day for the era’s greatest athlete. His predicament got worse when a pack of wolves (some narratives claim it was a pride of lions) came upon him as he struggled to free himself, and ate him alive.