Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-11-26
n SPECTATOR AND GENERAL ADVERTISER
Singular Deaths Among the Ancients,

. y NlON SKI
Singular Deaths Among the Ancients.
It is not little singular that the
Greeks have scarcely ever failed to
make the deaths of their literary he
roes as marvellous as their lives. Homer,
they tell us, died of a broken heart be-
cause he could not guess q riddle. AS
Horace had been warned by witch
that chatterbox would be his death. so
had Homer been warned by an oracle
that he would be killed by riddle
And his day came. And seeing-or
rather hearing, for the tradition of his
blindness is too universal to be discred-
ited-some young fishermen in boat,
he unfortunately asked them what
sport they had had. To which they
replied: "As many as we caught we
left, as many as we could not catch we
for the author of the "Illad"; he
no longer, and finally died of sheer vex-
alton. According to Gregory Nazian-
zen, Justin Martyr and Eustathius,
Aristototle went off in precisely the
same way, because he could not under
stand more interesting riddle set by
Nature, namely, the cause of the ebbing
and flowing Of the Euripus. "Since, y
he Indignantly exclaimed, II cannot
conceive the Euripus, let the Euripus
receive me-" Dio6orus,. the ingenious
inventor of the horned" and vailed"
sophism, having met with his match in
Stilpo, who caught him with another
sophism, which he was unable to solve,
went home, wrote book about it, and
died of despair. "Kings," wrote Flat
man, speaking of Charles the Seconds
death, 'should disdain to die, and only
isappear''-ahscond that it to say, in
to the other world.
Now, as Charles died in his bed, and
was most unconscionable time about
doing SO, as he apologetically remarked to
his attendants, he can scarcely be said
to have illustrated Flatman's remark
but if we are to believe Athenaus and
Elian, Philetas, though not a king, but
a poor poet, actually did. He had re-
duced himself to such pitch of tenuity
by reflection and study that he was
obliged to wear lead soles to his boOts'tc
keep himself from being blown away
or possibly from rising like balloon
into the celestial sphere. However, tn,
end of Philetus was, as Athenaus grave
ly assures us, evaporation-he positively
evaporated. A young gentleman known
to Dryden quilted the world in the SAM
way:-
| He disappeared, was rarifed,
| For tits improper speech to say he died;
| He was exhaled; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
This was possibly the end of Everart
Feithius, an illustrious German schola
of the seventeenth century, and frient
Of De Thou and Cassaubon. He wen
one day into the house of q respectabl
citizen in Rochelle, and was never af
terward heard Of That he was no
murdered seems clear, and the case wa
carefully sifted-that he was much to-
wise to walk into well is equally clear
The only plausible Interpretation of this
; the most mysterious disappearance OF
record, is to suppose that, like Phileta
and Dryden's young gentleman, poo
Everard also evaporated. But our bust
ness is at present with the Greeks. An
acreoD was choked by a grape stone
Sophocles is said by some to have com
!, to the same end, though, according t
others, he died of joy in being victor il
his last tragic contest Euripides wa
torn in pieces by dogs bounded on b,
some women in revenge for his misc
gynism. Eschylus was killed by al
eagle dropping tortoise on his bal
head, mistaking, it is supposed, tn
shining poll of the poet for stone, an
applying it to other uses than Me!pc
. meme would sanction. Alexis, accord
ing to Plutarch, fell dead on the stag
while they were browning him wit
/ laurel. Ibycus, one of the most pas
, sionate and brilliant Of Hellenic lyrist:
was murdered by some robbers in
desert, and revenged by the crows VIII
were flying overhead when the blood
deed was done. Honest Hesiod ais
came to melancholy end, though 'h
got his grave" for his corpse havin
been flung into the sea, it was solemn
f brought on shore On the backs OF do
phins. Rupolis, the great comic poe
, was, they say, thrown into the sea b
Alcibiades, in revenge for the poet
libels on him, without HesiOd's goo
= fortune.
5 Cleanthes, the Stole, suffering fro1
! an ulster in bis mouth, and having bee
! advised by his physician to abstai
| from food for three days, calmly obsery
. ed at the end of the second day that 8
he had now advanced SO far on the roa
to death he did not think it worth Will
, retracing his steps, persisted in absti
f nence and died of starvation. Th
Prince of Grammarians, Aristarchu!
terminated life of unbroken study i
the same extraordinary way. Perhai
: death was never approached so merrill
, as by Chryssippus That venerab
philosopher, if we are to credit stat
: ment quoted by Diogonese Laertiu
died from fit Of laughter brought o
by seeing an ass eating figs. Terte
, liam. grave father of the churci
be it remembered, tells us that tE
e efforts of the same poor innocent
: trying to get down some thistles had
similar effect on Licinius Crassus, mac
him. in fact, laugh himself into h
grave. Amusement was no joke /
those days Temple Bar,