THE BRAZEN BULL THE DANGEROUS EXECUTION DEVICE FOUNDED IN SICILY
THE BRAZEN BULL THE DANGEROUS EXECUTION DEVICE FOUNDED IN SICILY The brazen bull, bronze bull, or Sicilian bull, was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece.[1] Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he built for Phalaris. 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.[2] The bull was made entirely of bronze, hollow, with a door in one side. [3] The bull was 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 in the device, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside roasted to death. Reign of Phalaris[edit] Phalaris commanded that the bull be designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense.[citation needed] The hea...