10 Bizarre Methods of Capital Punishment

Bangalore: Capital punishment or execution is the sentence of death whereby a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime. Though today Capital punishment is shunned, it has in the past been practiced by most societies. The 10 most unusual and gruesome methods of capital punishment are listed below.

Brazen Bull:

The brazen bull or Sicilian bull was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. It was also called as bronze bull. Its inventor, a metal worker, Perillos from Athens, proposed it to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily to use it as a new means of executing criminals. The bull was made entirely of bronze, and was hollow, with a door in one side. The condemned were locked in the bull, and a fire was set under it, thus, heating the metal until it became yellow-hot and causing the person inside to roast to death. The bull was designed in a way that its smoke rose in clouds of incense. The head of the ox was designed with a complex system of tubes so that the prisoner’s screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an enraged bull.