This is the story of the Brazen Bull, a legendary torture device so heinous that its inventor was ultimately tortured and killed by it himself. To learn more about this torture device, we have to go back to ancient Greece.
The brazen bull, bronze bull, or Sicilian bull, was allegedly a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. According to Diodorus Siculus, recounting the story in Bibliotheca historica, Perillos of Athens invented and proposed it to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, as a new means of executing criminals. The bull was said to be made entirely out of bronze, hollow, with a door in one side.
According to legends the brazen bull was designed in the form and size of an actual bull and had an acoustic apparatus that converted screams into the sound of a bull. The condemned were locked inside the device, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside was roasted to death. Some modern scholars question if the brazen bull ever really existed, attributing reports of the invention to early propaganda.
8 Jaw-dropping Facts about Brazen Bull video:
Fact #1. As the story goes, one day in Ancient Greece, a sculptor from Athens named Perillos proposed the creation of the Brazen Bull to the evil tyrant Phalaris, who ruled over Akragas, Sicily. This torture device was to be a life-sized hollow sculpture of a bull, made entirely of bronze. There would be a door in the bull’s belly, where the victim would be forced in and the door would be locked. Then a fire would be set under the bull and the victim would be roasted alive as they screamed for mercy.
Fact #2. But this wasn’t all there was to the Brazen Bull. Since it was hollow, the Brazen Bull allowed for the installation of an acoustical system that projected the screams of the roasting victim so that the people in attendance could hear them. At the time, the acoustical system was quite ingenious, as the sound pipes were designed to convert the screams of the victim into the sounds of a bull, tenderly bellowing
Fact #3. The first victim of the Brazen Bull is perhaps the best part of this legend because the first victim was the inventor of the Brazen Bull himself, Perillos. Perillos was a craftsman, a sculptor and a worker in bronze. At the time, this type of position fell into the realm of slavery, or at best, servant to the master. Phalaris, cruel as he was, never asked Perillos for the Brazen Bull. Perillos brought Phalaris the Brazen Bull as a gift to gain favor with Phalaris – maybe for his freedom. Phalaris, thinking the device was evil asked Perillos to climb into the device and demonstrate the acoustics. As soon as Perillos was inside the bull, Phalaris locked the door and lit a fire. Phalaris roasted Perillos for a while, then let him out, only to throw his charred body off the top off a nearby hill.
Fact #4. The idea of the Brazen Bull has to do with the mythical culture and beliefs of the ancient Greeks. To them, the bull was a symbol of power and associated with deities. They believed in the mythical Minotaur, a man who had the head and the tail of a bull. The Minotaur was the offspring of a Queen of Crete - who mated with a white bull from the sea god Poseidon. Some Greeks also believed in Moloch, a bull-headed God who demanded human sacrifices. The Brazen Bull was a perfect way for Phalaris to get rid of his enemies, either in the name of crimes committed against the city-state of Akragas or simply to appease the gods in a religious ceremony where citizens could gather to worship.
Fact #5. But how was such a horrifying torture device as the Brazen Bull allowed to be used in such a civilized place as ancient Greece? The answer lies in the fact that ancient Greece was fragmented into many competing city-states, where large portions of the population were slaves. Torture was kept local, so it was only the citizens of Akragas, who had also incurred the wrath of Phalaris, which were probably tortured. These people, also being slaves who had no hope of escape, wouldn’t be missed by anyone outside of Akragas.
Fact #6. The Brazen Bull was eventually used as a form of entertainment. Since the city-state of Akragas was self-ruling, anyone who Phalaris wanted to put into it was fair game. The crowd always loved to see the Brazen Bull start puffing smoke out of his nose while he bellowed the most melodic of sounds. As the bull rocked back and forth and the snorting grew louder, it was quite a piece of theater to see, and the Greeks loved their theater. After the ceremony, the victim’s charred bones were removed - and because they “shone like jewels” spectators were allowed to take them and make them into jewelry to wear.
Fact # 7. After the overthrow of Phalaris, the Brazen Bull vanished. The people of Akragas, tired of Phalaris’s tyranny, organized themselves into a revolt. Their new leader Telemachus threw Phalaris into the Bull himself, to suffer the same fate as the slaves Phalaris tortured for his own amusement. The Brazen Bull was eventually taken to Carthage, where the city fell to the Romans. Envoys from Sicily were allowed to take the Brazen Bull
Fact # 8. The legend of the Brazen Bull is still alive today. Although some historic Christian saints were rumored to have been killed by the legendary Brazen Bull, the Catholic Church officially denies this. However, the legend of the Brazen Bull lives on in modern-day movies, where people are still fascinated by this means of torture. Films like “Immortals,” “Saw 3D,” and videos games like “Amnesia the Dark Descent,” and even television shows like “1,000 Ways to Die” all feature the Brazen Bull as an effective and grisly way to kill and torture its victims - while remaining a delightfully engaging piece of entertainment for its bloodthirsty audience.
