Top 10 drinking myths, legends and ancient rituals

Chrysippus’ drunken donkey

Chrysippus was a revered Greek philosopher who lived in 207 BC and was one of the foremost authorities on Stoicism – a school of thinking concerned with the relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom.

However the Greek philosopher is remembered not for his contribution to ethics and philosophy, rather his death, which saw him die laughing after getting his donkey drunk on wine and watching it try to eat figs.

He died in during the 143rd Olympiad (208 to 204 BC) at the age of 73. Diogenes Laërtius gives one account of his death in which he was said to be watching a donkey eat some figs and cried out: “Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs”, after which he died in a fit of laughter.