Man who invented 'world's most painful torture device' became a victim of it himself

Britt Jones
2026-03-10T14:56:02.111Z
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This 6th-century BC torture device was bad news for anyone in ancient Greece

Imagine being commissioned to create the ultimate torture device, only to have it used on you.

While we call all think about how awful that would be – one man faced the realities of ancient dictatorship and its ugly side.

There was once a device so heinous, that it was even used as inspiration for horror films that probably gave you nightmares.

Namely the Saw movies.

You might remember the ‘Brazen Bull’ device, that saw a poor soul waking up inside of a copper hollow bull that basically cooked them alive.

But while you’ll know the torture method, you might not know the fate of its creator.

The victim would be place inside (Wikimedia Commons)

So, let’s ponder back to the 6th Century BC when Perilaus of Athens, the Ancient Greek inventor who came up the Brazen Bull, presented his findings to Phalaris, the tyrant of the Sicilian state of Akragas.

At the time, Perilaus had just created this mad method to be the worst torture device in history, which was accomplished by trapping the individual inside using a door on one side to allow the victim to climb in while a fire was lit from underneath.

Once in and cooking, the person’s screams would allegedly be funneled out of a hole in the Bull’s face to sound like the real-life creature.

But just because the inventor gifted the tyrant a new way to kill his subjects, doesn’t mean he would be exempt from being thrown in it.

In fact, apparently, he was the first one to try it out – mostly because Phalaris wanted to know if the Bull would truly moo as the person cooked inside.

To get the inventor inside, Phalaris allegedly asked him to walk in and demonstrate what the noise would sound like if someone was screaming.

But once he was in, Phalaris locked the door and lit it up.

Even though the ruler went on to let him out before he died, Phalaris instead had him chucked off a hill to his death.

Then, he had the luxury of using the Bull until his own death in 554 BC, when he was overthrown and executed by also being placed inside of the Bull.

Obviously, this is all historic speculation as there isn’t a lot of evidence to suggest it was used, but if this is all true – I can’t say there are any heroes in this story, just strange people obsessed with bulls and blood.