Aeschylus, the great Athenian author of tragedies, died in 455 BC. He was killed when an eagle mistook his head for a rock and tried to crack a tortoise’s shell by dropping it on the shiny object below.

Pliny, in his Naturalis Historiæ, adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avert a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object.

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