One of the saddest things about life is the irony of being hurt by something you love, and one man learned this the hard way after he became victim to his own excruciating torture device.
According to Study.com, the Brazen Bull is a contraption of torture and execution used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans to punish their enemies.
This life-sized bull-shaped statue, which was typically made of brass or bronze, was designed to be hollow in the stomach area so that victims could be locked inside it and then roasted alive over an open flame.
Flute-like pipes would carry the victim's screams through the bull's nostrils, creating what was described as "animalistic music" while the stench of the scorched flesh billowed out in puffs of smoke - it's pretty crazy that someone even thought of this, to be honest.
And who was the creator of such a cruel device? Perilaus of Athens, an Ancient Greek inventor.
Upon hearing about it, people couldn't believe that someone could even come up with something as barbaric as this.
"How horrible humanity can be that this torture death invention ever existed," wrote one person while another added: "Makes me really grateful to live in this era."
A third also commented: "Besides just the sheer, excruciating, unimaginable pain, there is also the psychological effect of it being in an enclosed space and pitch black."
Big yikes.
Perilaus passed the torture chamber onto Phalaris, the tyrant of the Sicilian state of Akragas, and let's just say he put it to good use.
A man as evil as Phalaris was known to always know how to keep up his reputation and when he was presented with this gift, he decided to ask Perilaus for a real-life demonstration.
After getting into the bull's belly, the inventor didn't think the tyrant would lock him inside and start the fire, but he did.
However, just before Perilaus could die, he unlocked the device and let him out.
Those few moments would have been complete agony for him, and his torture didn't end there.
Despite being let out of the contraption, the inventor was killed after being thrown off the top of a hill by Phalaris' goons.
The torture device became a staple for the ruler and it was reported that he enjoyed hearing his victims writhe in pain while he watched the bull rock back and forth.
In what can only be described as a full circle event, Phalaris met his match when he was overthrown from power and just to add insult to injury, he was shoved into the Brazen Bull to give him a taste of his own medicine.
And that folks, is the irony of life.
