The copper bull is the most terrible torture device invented by the ancients. Age of the Seven Wise Men

History knows many examples of merciless tyrants who used sophisticated methods of execution. In the period of Antiquity, Falaris from Akraganth terrified his compatriots. During his life, he committed many cruel murders, but his atrocities did not go unpunished and he met death in the body of the Sicilian bull - one of the most cruel methods of execution in all human history.

Bull Falarida: characteristic

The copper bull is an ancient instrument of execution, which was used for his torture by the tyrant Falaris, famous for his ruthlessness. He lived in Acraganta (the modern city of Agrigento in Sicily) in the second half of the 6th century BC. new era. Contemporaries said that the tyrant cruelly cracked down on his enemies and did not spare the captured people. Information has been preserved that Falaris threw captives into the mouth of a volcano, threw them off a cliff, and used other sophisticated methods of killing.

It is with Falaris that historians associate the emergence of the execution weapon, named after the merciless tyrant - the copper bull of Falaris. In different sources, you can also find the second name of this invention - the Sicilian bull. The design, intended for the brutal killing of people, was a life-size hollow sculpture of a bull made of copper. On the side or, as another version says, on the back between the shoulder blades was a door through which the victim was put inside. A fire was lit under the belly of the bull, and the man burned alive, experiencing terrible torment.

Descriptions have come down to our time, according to which holes were made in the area of ​​​​the nostrils of the bull through which smoke escaped. Also, the design was equipped with special pipes. When the victims moaned in pain and screamed, the sounds they made were like the roar of a bull, which was so strong that it could be heard at great distances from the place of execution.

The creator of the bull - sculptor Perilai

According to legend, the creator of the bull Falaris was the sculptor Perilaus, who lived in Akragant in the middle of the 6th century BC. The ancient Greek historian wrote that Perilaus created a copper bull specifically for the tyrant Falaris, who became famous for his cruelty. It is not known for certain what kind of dialogue took place between Perilaus and Falaris after the former created his invention. There are several versions of this event.

Ancient historians claim that the sculptor, wanting to please the cruel tyrant, delivered an invention to him in the hope of receiving a high reward for it. Perilaus explained the principle of the execution and said that the screams of the victim, passing through the flute built into the nostrils of the animal, are transformed into a melodic lowing, the sounds of which will please the witnesses of the execution. Falaris decided that Perilius should use his own invention on himself. Perilia was put inside the bull and then set on fire. Then the cruel tyrant pulled the body of the still living sculptor from the bull and threw it from the top of the hill. Ovid gives the following lines describing this episode: “Perylus himself was fried in the bull he created, and he was the first to confirm the cruelty of his handiwork.”

The ancient Greek writer Lucian, in his essay Falaris, depicts Falaris as a just ruler who rarely resorted to violence. Lucian writes that the execution of Perilaus was a retribution and was carried out in order to punish him for his "evil invention." After the death of Perilaus, the bull was transferred to Delphi.

Below is an engraving by Pierre Veyriot "Falaris". It depicts the execution of the sculptor Perilius, who became the first victim of his cruel invention.

Persecution of Christians in Rome

The story of the bull Falaris was continued in Rome during the period of persecution of Christians. The Romans are believed to have used this torture device to kill Christians who were unwilling to renounce their faith in the Lord God and worship "demonic gods". An episode from the life of the holy martyr Antipas of Pergamon is given.

The bishop was accused of turning the people away from sacrifices and worship of local gods with his sermons. In response to demands to renounce his faith, the Saint replied that he would never betray faith in the Son of God. The enraged priests took Antipas to the temple of Artemis and threw him into a red-hot copper ox. The relics of the saint were buried in Pergamon. Christians believe that they heal from diseases and give comfort to a person.

Mention of the bull Falarida in literature

The mention of the ancient method of execution can be found on the villages literary works. In Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" there is a quote: "The hetman, roasted in a copper bull, lies in Warsaw, and the colonel's hands and heads are taken to fairs for show to all the people." In order to better understand this scene in the work and mentally imagine the picture described by Nikolai Gogol, the reader should have an idea of ​​​​what the execution in the bull of Falarida was like.

Also, the mention of execution can be found in Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose", in Dante Alighieri's poem "The Divine Comedy", in Valentin Ivanov's novel "Original Russia".

In the story "The System of Dr. Small and Professor Perrier," Edgar Allan Poe uses a metaphor: "the violins squealed, the drum rumbled like the brass bulls of Falaris."

Execution scenes in cinema

Brutal death using the bull of Falaris is mentioned in the following films:

• "War of the Gods: Immortals" (2011). The film contains a torture scene in which the victim is set on fire in a bull.
• The movie Little Red Riding Hood (2011) shows an almost identical torture device, only instead of a bull, the filmmakers used the figure of an elephant.
• In Saw 3D (2010), a woman dies in a Falaris bull-like device.

In addition to the films presented above, the scene of brutal death with the use of an ancient instrument of torture can also be found in computer game Amnesia: The Dark Descent".

It was a blessing to those cities in which the law succeeded in reconciling the people and the nobility! But that rarely happened. Here and there, strife broke out, it came to weapons, and there was no mercy for anyone. In the city of Miletus, the people expelled the aristocrats, and threw their children into the current and trampled them under the hooves of bulls. And when the aristocrats returned, they seized the children of their opponents, smeared them in tar and burned them alive.

Gathering at the altars of the gods, the aristocrats swore an oath: “I swear to be the black enemy and intend only evil against her ...” At feasts, they repeated the verses of Theognid of Megara to the sound of flutes: “With a strong heel, trample the empty-thinking people mercilessly, beat them with a sharp butt, press down with a heavy yoke! ... ”And the people answered them with the same hatred.

Know was strong unity. But sometimes this unity is broken. Either the clan quarreled with the clan, or there was a talented loner who believed that the strict mores of aristocratic equality fettered his strength. Then he could address the people: “I am your friend; my rivals are your oppressors; help me against them, and I will help you against them.” If such a person showed himself successful in war and generous in peace, then the people followed him. He seized power, dealt with enemies, and the enemies called him a tyrant.

In our time, the word "tyrant" simply means "cruel ruler." Among the Greeks, this word meant "a ruler who illegally seized power." Our Paul I, although he was cruel, the Greeks would not have called a tyrant. And they would call Napoleon.

The nobility hated tyrants, the people did not trust them. Tyrants dealt with the nobility, they attracted the people with booty from wars and income from trade. The reprisals were really terrible, and the stories about them were even more terrible ...

The most famous was the story of the copper bull Falaris, a tyrant from Acragas in Sicily. The coppersmith Perillus made for him a statue of a bull, empty inside; there was a door in the side, and a fire was kindled under the copper belly. Whom Falarid wanted to execute, he threw inside the bull and burned alive. The screams of the dying hummed in the hollow copper, and it seemed as if the bull was mooing.

Perill did not independently invent this deadly machine. The Sicilian Greeks had dangerous neighbor: Carthaginians. The city of Carthage, a colony of the Phoenicians, stood opposite Sicily on the African coast. It was said that once the Phoenician queen Dido, expelled from her native places, sailed here and asked the Africans to sell her as much land as an ox skin would embrace. They agreed. Then Dido cut the bull skin into thin belts, cordoned off a steep coastal hill with them, and built the fortress of Birsu on this hill: in Phoenician this word means “fortress”, and in Greek - “bull skin”. Around the fortress grew the city of Carthage. In it, they prayed to the Phoenician gods, and in difficult times they brought human sacrifices to them. They said that in their temple there was a copper statue of a god with an empty body and in it they burned first-born children as a gift to the god, and parents had to look at it with joyful smiles. It was this Carthaginian invention that Perillus imitated when he made his copper bull. Deadly techniques are often adopted more readily and sooner than those that are useful for life.

However, not everyone believed these stories about Falaris. It was said that Perillus really made and brought him a terrible bull, but Falarid was so horrified by this that he ordered Perillus to be seized and himself burned in his copper monster. (His fate became an example of the proverb: “Don’t dig a hole for another, you yourself will fall into it.”) And then they cleansed the copper statue, as after a murder, and sent it to Delphi, as a gift to Apollo.

In the old days, people were sentenced to death for all kinds of crimes: from murder to petty theft. Most often, executions were public, so to attract more Onlookers tried to make the act of killing more spectacular. And there were no limits to the human imagination.

copper bull

Before execution, the condemned man's tongue was cut off, and then he was locked inside a copper bull. A huge fire was kindled under the bull, and the poor fellow was practically roasted alive in it. Due to the lack of a language, he could not scream, so all that remained for him was to beat against the hot walls. From the blows, the bull staggered and seemed to come to life, causing a stormy delight of the crowd.

Ash execution

The person was locked in a cramped unventilated room filled with ashes. The offender died in long agony, which sometimes lasted several days or weeks.

elephant execution

sentenced to death penalty were given to be torn to pieces by a specially trained executioner elephant. He trampled the victim, and she died from injuries. Moreover, those criminals who were stepped on by an elephant, one might say, were still lucky - they died quickly and without torment - while others could be tormented by an elephant for hours.

bamboo execution

A well-known property of bamboo - fast growth- the sick human imagination also used to torture those sentenced to death. The body of a person was placed over the shoots of young bamboo, and the plant sprouted through it, causing unimaginable suffering to the victim.

Milk and honey

The convict was placed in a boat, fixing his body in such a way that he could not move. For a long time the poor fellow was fed only milk and honey. If he refused to eat, a sharp stick was poked into his eye until he opened his mouth. The skin of the condemned was also smeared with honey. Soon hordes of insects, attracted by the sweet smell, pounced on the body and literally ate the poor fellow alive.

History of inventions. The first victim of the electric chair and the copper bull that ate the creator

The history of executions and torture will overwhelm anyone modern man into shock: burning at the stake, quartering, crucifixion. These are far from the most terrible ways in which ancient world and the Middle Ages took the life of criminals, conspirators, alleged witches and other unfortunates who had the imprudence to fall into the millstones state system punishments. Onliner.by tells the story of the creation of the instruments of execution and those who became their victims.

Electric chair

With the maturation of human civilization, execution methods were replaced by more humane ones. The idea of ​​executing criminals with electricity in 1881 was promoted by the American dentist and engineer Alfred Southwick. He heard a story about a drunkard who seized bare hand per electric generator and died instantly. So fast way killings could be used as an alternative to hanging, which made the victim suffer before death. As an example, he cited a recent execution where a man in a noose continued to breathe for another 15 minutes - "a barbaric relic."

The idea was first tested as euthanasia for hundreds of stray dogs. They were experimentally killed in water, with various types electrodes and their placement, choosing the most appropriate location. The first person sentenced to death was put on the electric chair on August 6, 1890 in the prison of the city of New York. But not everything went smoothly. As the Los Angeles Herald wrote the next day, in order to kill William Kemmler, who hacked his mistress with an ax, it was necessary to turn on the electric chair a second time, and double the power of the installation. "His nervous system was destroyed not by a flash, as was supposed, but by relatively slow blows of electric hammers,- this is how the journalist described the impressions of the execution.

To produce a second electric shock, the dynamo had to be restarted. For several minutes, the frightened people in the room stared helplessly at the electric chair. “Saliva dripped from Kemmler’s lips, and his chest began to heave, loud wheezing sounds came from his mouth.” When the car was finally launched at maximum speed, 2,000 volts were passed through Kemmler's body, which completely suppressed any signs of life in him. A witness who was present at the execution later said: "It would be better if they used an axe."

Los Angeles Herald illustration

A subsequent examination of the body showed that one of the electrodes left a noticeable scar on the skin, and the heart, lungs and other internal organs were not damaged. They, along with the brain, were removed for further study.

Over the next two decades, the electric chair was used in four more American cities, and soon this method became prevalent in local prisons.

Probably the most famous prison where death sentences were carried out on electric chair, you can call Sing Sing in New York. This penitentiary was visited by Soviet writers Ilf and Petrov during their trip to "one-story America" ​​on the advice of Ernest Hemingway. There were 2,299 people in Sing Sing then. Of these, 85 were in life imprisonment, and another 16 were awaiting their turn in the electric chair.

Such a Sing-Sing saw a cartoonist. 1906

This is how the prisoners and cells in the old building actually looked. 1915 Bain News Service

For Ilf and Petrov, they arranged a tour of the old and new buildings of the prison, and also showed an inconspicuous one-story brick house, in which there was an electric “wooden yellow chair with high back and with armrests. 200 men and three women were executed on it (by the time the death penalty was abolished in 1972, their total number had reached 614), but it looked like new. His peaceful appearance was broken only by leather bracelets for the legs and arms of the convict, as well as armrests polished with elbows.

In addition, there were also four benches for witnesses, a table and a washbasin in the wall. A door from a smaller room led into the room. switchboard and an old-fashioned knife switch. For each inclusion, the executioner received $ 150, and there was no end to those who wished. In another adjoining room there was a warehouse of coffins, which were made by prisoners.

Perhaps the same electric chair that Ilf and Petrov met in Sing Sing. 1915 Photo: Robbins, T. Fred

“The fact that their request for pardon has been rejected and that the execution will be carried out today is reported to the condemned early in the morning. Then the condemned is prepared for execution: a small circle is shaved on his head in order to electricity I could do my job without hindrance,- the writers told in the notes from the trip.

At one time, serial killer Albert Fish was executed on the Sing Sing chair. The victims of the "Moon Maniac", or "Brooklyn Vampire", as the local press called it, were from 7 to 15 children. The life of the Rosenberg couple, who spied for the USSR, ended on the same chair. They were accused of passing American nuclear secrets to the Soviets.

Ruth Snyder has become one of the most known victims Sing Sing prison courtesy of photographer Tom Howard. The man entered the execution in January 1928 under the guise of a writing journalist, and a miniature camera with a single photographic plate was attached to his ankle. The camera shutter cable ran under Howard's clothing. At the moment of supplying electricity, he pressed the trigger: the woman's body writhed in the electric chair, the picture turned out to be smeared. But this dynamic only added drama to the photos. The next day it went to press under the heading "DEAD!".

The same photo and its artistic adaptation on the newspaper page

In various states, execution by electric chair was practiced until 1980, when it was supplanted by lethal injection. In some US prisons, those sentenced to death can still choose between electricity and injection. On the this moment the last prisoner died in the electric chair in January 2013.

copper bull

The electric chair reeked of humanism against the backdrop of all those executions that humanity has come up with for thousand years of history. If Alfred Southwick died peacefully at a respectable age, then another inventor of the killing machine fell victim to his own invention. It's about about the Athenian coppersmith Perilla, who created the Copper Bull (Bull Falaris). Inside the copper statue, a person sentenced to death was placed through a special door, a fire was lit under the statue. The invention had a special acoustic apparatus from a system of tubes that converted the screams of a suicide bomber into the sound of a bull roar. In this kind of oven, ancient criminals were baked to death.

Perill presented his development in the 6th century BC to the bloody Sicilian tyrant Falaris. “Screams will come to you through the pipes as the most tender, most touching and melodic lowing”,- quote the legends of a coppersmith who expected a big reward for his work. But the tyrant was in such a hurry to test new toy, which, without thinking twice, placed its creator in the unit.

Some sources claim that Perilla was not allowed to fry. The tyrant himself took him out of the bull, and then took him to the mountain, from which he threw him down onto the stones. But judging the plausibility of this ending is as difficult as understanding the details of an event that took place two and a half thousand years ago.

The bloody ruler himself did not escape acquaintance with the insides of a bull. His cruel rule eventually brought the citizens to the edge, who took advantage of the arrival of Telemachus' armed detachment. An uprising broke out, Faralis' family was killed, and he himself was imprisoned in a copper bull, where he was slowly roasted for the rest of his very short life.

Variations of the copper bull appeared repeatedly in the subsequent history of humiliating human torture. The Romans similarly massacred Christians, and the Christians later roasted heretics to death.

Guillotine

In the Middle Ages, those who promoted new methods of execution also fell victim to these deadly devices. One of the varieties of the guillotine, before it received this well-established name, was brought to Scotland in the 17th century by James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. In this country, a blade with a load, suspended on a rope and designed to instantly cut off the head, was called the Scottish maiden. This "maiden" beheaded the Earl of Morton, after the end of his regency at the time of growing up of the Scottish King James VI.

It is not known for certain who invented this device. But in various European states he received wide use after the French anatomy professor Joseph Guillotin suggested in 1789 the use of a slanting blade to cut off the head as a more humane instrument of execution. Swords and axes in the hands of inept executioners caused prolonged agony of the victims. Guillotin advocated the abolition of the death penalty, but times and circumstances dictated their terms.