The 20 Strangest Figures in History

The homeless person in your neighborhood may seem rude, but at least he isn’t walking around the streets of Athens in broad daylight with a lit lantern. The Greek philosopher Diogenes had a very high opinion of himself and lived in a huge barrel. He once offended the powerful Alexander the Great and relieved himself in public.

This young Roman ruler turned the empire upside down by appointing a barber as chief tax collector and marrying a Vestal Virgin. No one ever knew what to expect at his lavish dinners. He would shower his guests with mountains of poisoned rose petals and release hungry leopards into the crowd.

A true medical marvel from France, this man could swallow entire baskets of apples, corks, and even live cats without ever gaining a single gram. He would swallow cages full of chickens, keep them alive in his stomach, and regurgitate them a few hours later. He traveled the country as a street performer.

Jemmy Hirst, an eccentric Englishman, would ride in public on a bull named “Jupiter” as if it were a horse. He constantly invited foxes into his home and fed them as if they were guests. When he died, he requested that eight elderly maids carry his coffin at his funeral.

The “Witch of Wall Street” was a woman who seemed penniless. Yet she possessed one of the greatest fortunes. She refused to bathe in hot water, wore the same tattered black dress until it fell apart, and searched everywhere for a 2-cent stamp she had misplaced.

The American businessman Lord Timothy Dexter made his fortune by selling items in places where they weren’t needed. For example, he sold foot warmers in the West Indies, thinking it was cold there. His autobiography, however, contained no punctuation.

The British charlatan Mary Toft convinced doctors that she was giving birth to rabbits. The doctors actually believed that women could give birth to rabbits, until they caught Mary smuggling one into her home. Her hoax sparked widespread hysteria throughout England.

After losing all his money in a bad investment in the rice industry, this San Francisco resident proclaimed himself emperor of the United States. The city’s residents fully embraced his delusion, going so far as to print counterfeit money for him and let him eat for free at high-end restaurants.

This 19th-century geologist harbored the rather strange ambition of tasting every animal in the animal kingdom. At his eccentric dinner parties, he served his horrified guests dishes such as leopard, blue flies, and even crocodile. Rumor has it that he even swallowed the mummified heart of a French king without batting an eye during an informal visit to an estate.

Out of nowhere, two green children appeared as if by magic. They refused to touch their usual food for days, until the villagers offered them fresh green beans, which they devoured with gusto. One of the children died, but the other lost his green color after learning English.

Simeon Stylites, an extreme Christian ascetic, literally lived atop a column for more than thirty years. Seated on a small platform in Syria, he preached to his followers gathered below. He relied on local villagers to hoist baskets of basic foodstuffs up to him using a system of long ropes.

British actress Princess Caraboo led tourists to believe she was a princess from the island of Javasu. She fooled everyone by speaking incomprehensible gibberish and wearing brightly colored clothes. The whole illusion came crashing down when an innkeeper recognized her as the daughter of a humble cobbler from Devon.

Francis Egerton, a great animal lover, used to host dinners for his dogs. He would even put leather shoes and cute little outfits on them before seating them at his table. If his dogs misbehaved, he would send them away from the table.

This wealthy Italian heiress loved to shock her neighbors. To do so, she would stroll through the streets of Venice completely naked under a fur coat. She owned two large cheetahs as pets and often used them as living accessories during her daily walks.

This infamous Russian mystic managed to survive an attempt on his life by poisoning, a shooting, and a beating—all in the span of a single night—before ultimately drowning in an icy river. He wielded considerable influence over the royal family, mainly because they believed he could cure their ailing son.

A British millionaire who was bored out of his mind once rode a bear to his own dinner party. He spent his vast inheritance on extravagant pranks, such as setting his own nightshirt on fire just to get rid of a persistent hiccup.

Convinced that the ghosts of gunshot victims were haunting her, this wealthy widow spent decades having a mansion built with interconnected rooms, without any blueprints. She ordered the construction crews to work around the clock. This allowed her to create staircases that led nowhere and doors that opened onto solid walls.

This English gentleman transformed his vast estate into the world’s very first wilderness nature reserve, all while behaving like an animal himself. He loved to hide under the dinner table and bite his guests’ legs to make them think he was a ferocious dog. He also mastered the art of climbing trees barefoot, right up until he was in his late seventies.

The famous Scottish essayist had a deep-seated hatred of noise. That is why he had a soundproof room built on the top floor of his house. He couldn’t stand the sound of his neighbors’ roosters crowing, so much so that he tried to buy up all the roosters in the region just to regain a little peace and quiet.

After the King of France had her husband executed for treason, this noblewoman sold her lands and purchased three large warships painted entirely black. She became a ruthless pirate, nicknamed the “Lioness of Brittany,” and spent years hunting down French ships. She personally dealt with every aristocrat she captured, sparing only a few so they could tell the king who was responsible for these crimes.