One of the more chilling torture/execution devices in my eyes is the Brazen Bull. In essence, a metal chamber (shaped like a bull for stylistic reasons) in which the victim would be cooked.
In the classic version, it was designed so that the screams would come out sounding like a bellowing bull. Given the Bronze-Age technology available at the time of its production, would acoustics like that be possible?
Bonus Question: in the Wikipedia article, it says Perillos was killed by being thrown from a hill. In my books, a “hill” is defined by sloped sides, not cliffs. I kind of imagine him comically tumbling down a gentle incline. What’s up with that?
At least possible, terrible way to die. Trumpets and whistles of various types have been around for thousands of years not too hard to make a bull noise but I would expect the sound to be created by escaping air/steam and less by screams. Just thinking about this gives me the heeby jeebies
Huh, so I just Google Image Searched “hill greece” and it came up with a bunch of pictures of terrifying rock cliffs. Apparently Greece has some pretty menacing hillsides.
Maybe it’s like the Tarpeian Rock, that the Romans used for executions:
In my book, a “rock” is something I can usually pick up, or at most a free-standing boulder, rather than a cliff of lethal height. But the name has become standardized in our terminology for that particular case. Maybe what Perillos was tossed off has similary become called in a standard way a “hill”, even though that connotes something different to you (and to me).
The Wikipedia article observes that there was a hollow bull at Athens or wherever, but not that it was actually used for executions. This story has the appearance of a fabulation made to “explain” the existence of such a statue, and I suspect that the bull-as-torture device is as likely as the wings of Daedalus. Or the Cow of Pasiphae (which would make an interesting torture device, itself).
But if it was used for torture/executions as described, it’s definitely euphemistic to describe it as “chilling”. :eek:
ETA: Note also, the famous torture device “The Iron Maiden” is thought to be fictional, existing only in relatively latter-day incarnations of an imagined earlier device.
Well no, not really. One definition of “rock” offered by Merriam Webster is “a large mass of stone forming a cliff, promontory, or peak,” which is by no means limited to the case you mention. Consider Mazinaw Rock, East Rock, or any of the various Pulpit Rocks and Castle Rocks that qualify.
Not to mention the Rock of Gibrakltar. All of which is pretty irrelevant. When I said “in my book”, I’m referring to what I think of when I say rock, regardless of the dictionary.
Yes, it was just on the episode of 1,000 ways to die on spike i saw yesterday. The temp goes up to something like 400 degrees F, which is more than enough to kill somebody. At 200F, the blood and skin start to boil.
Sorry, my question was less “is it possible to boil someone to death” and more “could they have made such an acoustical device with Bronze Age technology?”
For a certain generous interpretation of “sound like a bull”, sure. My daughter’s random yells through a roll of wrapping paper sound fairly bull like. Y’know, if the bull was a seven year old girl.