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The Original Greek Olympics and Ancient History’s Coolest Facts

Khalid Elhassan July 31, 2021 35 min

The ancient Greeks inaugurated the Olympic Games in 776 BC. Imagining History

The ancient Greeks' greatest Olympics champion came to a sticky end when he got his hands stuck — The ancient Greeks’ greatest Olympics champion came to a sticky end when he got his hands stuck. Encyclopedia Britannica

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.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.