Throughout History there have been many different execution methods used to put a condemned
prisoner to death.
In England, some of the most brutal ever used were hanging, drawing and quartering and also
burning at the stake which were used by infamous Tudor monarchs such as King Henry VIII and
Bloody Mary I.
But there are others which were used around the world, for example in Asia elephants were
used to take lives and this was seen as the power of a ruler exerting his command over
the condemned.
But there was another animal used to take the lives of a victim, however this was more
of a metal structure in the form of an animal.
The Brazen Bull has gone down in history as a horrific execution method, in which someone
slowly roasted to death with a crowd hearing their screams.
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The Brazen Bull was a torture and execution device which emerged from Ancient Greece.
It was said that it was invented and proposed to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas as a way
of executing criminals in a different way.
The bull would have been made from bronze and had a door in one side to let criminals
into the device, and it was hollow.
Now once the condemned were locked inside of the bull then a fire was set underneath
it, and then the metal of the device would get warmer and then excruciatingly hot, and
the person inside would be slowly cooked and roasted to death.
It would have taken some time for someone to be roasted to death, and it would have
been incredibly painful and a very sinister way to go.
Also it could be used to torture someone to gain confessions and information from.
IT has been doubted whether the device ever did exist, or whether it was used as propaganda
like the Blood Eagle has been for the vikings, to make the Greeks seem fearsome.
It was said also that the head of the bull was designed in such a way that it had a number
of tubes inside that would stop the prisoner’s screams being heard, and instead the sound
from the human inside would appear like the cry of an angry bull.
The Greek leader was said to have been impressed at the design, and the smoke apparently generated
from it would release an incense style smell.
But when the bull would be opened after the execution was performed, the body of the condemned
would have been reduced to a smouldering pile of ashes or bones.
It was said by the constructor that, ‘his screams will come to you through the pipes
as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowing,’ and it’s believed that
for inventing the Brazen Bull he would be rewarded.
However Phalaris then ordered the creator Perilaus to himself get inside the bull and
he was tricked in getting in.
Once inside he was locked in and then the fire was set, and screaming away the bull
could be heard.
However shortly before death the door was opened and he was taken away.
It was said that Perilaus the creator was then thrown off a hill and killed, and was
even alleged that the Brazen Bull killed Phalaris.
It was written and documented a century later that the bull was used as a form of torture,
and the Romans claimed to have used the bull to kill Christians and torture them.
Saint Eustace allegedly was roasted to death by the bull, and it’s believed that the
device around the year 287 burned another Christian, with Emperor Diocletian using it.
However there is debate as to whether the Brazen Bull was actually used or not.
Previously when we looked at the blood eagle and the viking practice of performing this
ritualistic sacrifice, we mentioned how doubt had been cast whether this had been used.
The Brazen bull could have been similar in this regard as a device that was written about
to communicate how fearsome and brutal the Greeks and romans could be, in a way that
would initimate their enemies and keep possible resistors from rising up.
But what cannot be disputed is how painful being locked in a structure like the Brazen
Bull would be.
Being locked in a structure with no way out, whilst it slowly heats up around you.
It would be like being locked in a house which is on fire, but much more enclosed and terrifying.
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