Brazen bull

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Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he built for Phalaris.

The brazen bull, bronze bull, or Sicilian bull, was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece.[1] Its inventor, metal-worker Perillos of Athens, 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 condemned were locked in the bull, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside roasted to death.

Contents

History [edit]

Reign of Phalaris [edit]

The brazen bull (left) depicted on an old engraving

Phalaris commanded that the bull be designed in such a way that its smoke rise in spicy clouds of incense.[4] The head of the bull was designed with a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an infuriated bull.[5] According to legend, when the bull was reopened, the victim's scorched bones "shone like jewels and were made into bracelets."[6]

Perillos said to Phalaris: "[His screams] will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings."[7] Disgusted by these words, Phalaris ordered its horn sound system to be tested on Perillos himself. When Perillos entered, he was immediately locked in, and the fire was set, so that Phalaris could hear the sound of his screams.[7] Before Perillos could die, Phalaris opened the door and took him away. Perillos believed he would receive a reward for his invention; instead, after freeing him from the bull, Phalaris threw him from the top of a hill, killing him. Phalaris himself is said to have been killed in the brazen bull when he was overthrown by Telemachus, the ancestor of Theron.[4]

Possible link to the Golden Calf [edit]

Some scholars of the early 20th century proposed a connection between Phalaris' bull and the bull-images of Phoenician cults (cf. the Biblical golden calf), and hypothesized a continuation of Eastern human sacrifice practices.[citation needed] This idea has subsequently fallen out of favor.[citation needed][by whom?]

The story of the bull cannot be dismissed as pure invention. Pindar, who lived less than a century afterwards, expressly associates this instrument of torture with the name of the tyrant.[8]

Carthaginian capture and Roman restoration [edit]

Saint Antipas being roasted alive in a Brazen bull at Pergamon.

There was certainly a brazen bull at Agrigentum that was carried off by the Carthaginians to Carthage. This is said to have been later taken by Scipio the Elder and restored to Agrigentum circa 200 BC. However, it is more likely that it was Scipio the Younger who returned this bull and other stolen works of art to the original Sicilian cities, after his total destruction of Carthage circa 146 BC, which ended the Third Punic War.

Roman persecution of Christians [edit]

The Romans were reputed to have used this torture device to kill some Jews, as well as some Christians, notably Saint Eustace, who, according to Christian tradition, was roasted in a brazen bull with his wife and children by the Emperor Hadrian.[citation needed] The same happened to Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian and the first martyr in Asia Minor, who was roasted to death in a brazen bull in AD 92.[4] The device was still in use two centuries later, when another Christian, Pelagia of Tarsus, is said to have been burned in one in 287 by the Emperor Diocletian.[citation needed]

Francesco Ferdinandi, The Martyrdom of St. Eustace. Behind the main altar at the Church of Sant'Eustachio, Rome, this painting follows the narrative in the Golden Legend: For refusing to sacrifice to the gods, Saint Eustace and his wife and sons are to be enclosed in a Brazen bull which will be heated till they die.

The Catholic Church discounts the story of Saint Eustace's martyrdom as "completely fabulous".[9]

Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse [edit]

According to the Chronica caesaraugustana, Burdunellus, a Roman usurper, was roasted in a brazen bull by the king Alaric II in 497.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

Notes
  1. ^ Diehl & Donnelly 2008, p. 37
  2. ^ "The Brazen Bull". Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  3. ^ Diehl & Donnelly 2008, p. 39
  4. ^ a b c "Perillos of the Brazen Bull". Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  5. ^ "Heat Torture". Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  6. ^ Thompson 2008, p. 30
  7. ^ a b "Top 10 Gruesome Methods of Execution". Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  8. ^ Pindar, Pythian 1
  9. ^ "Martyrologium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 ISBN 8-820-97210-7)
Bibliography
  • Diehl, Daniel; Donnelly, Mark P. (2008), The Big Book of Pain: Punishment and Torture Through History, The History Press, ISBN 978-0-7509-4583-7 
  • Thompson, Irene (2008), The A to Z of Punishment and Torture: From Amputations to Zero Tolerance, Book Guild Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84624-203-8 

External links [edit]

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