The brazen bull, bronze bull, or Sicilian bull, was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. Its inventor, metal-worker Perillos of Athens, proposed it to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, as a new means of executing criminals. The bull was made entirely of bronze, hollow, with a door in one side. The condemned were locked in the bull, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside roasted to death.
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Famous quotes containing the words brazen and/or bull:
“The sun came dazzling through the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Not only the bull attacks his enemies with curved horn, but also the sheep, when harmed fights back.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)