I thought I might have done this idea before but I can't seem to find it with a search so here we go 🙂

The inventor proudly showed his creation to the tyrant: the Brazen Bull. Condemned prisoners would be forced inside the copper effigy, their arms and legs pushed down into the hollow hooves. Then a fire would be lit beneath, heating the metal like an oven. Special herbs would be burned, with pipes to funnel the strange fumes inside the statue, while other tubes would carry and convert the screams into the most melodious bellowing of a cow. Inside, under the effects of the heat and incense, the still-living man would melt and pool within the inner mold, like jelly.

It was an invention so abhorrent that even the tyrant was appalled. He instructed the inventor to demonstrate it himself, personally lighting the fire once the man was inside. When the bronze cooled, the statue was disassembled to expose the man within, now a perfect replica of a cow. The tyrant’s initial revulsion, however, did not stop him from keeping the device, and turning it upon his many rivals.

Perhaps he regretted not destroying it when he had the chance, for when the uprising came he himself was sealed inside. A lower hatch was left open, allowing his liquefied form to spill out and pool in the deepest dungeon, where it is said to remain to this day, cursing the world above.

It is an unfortunate fact that an idea, once uttered into the world, cannot be unuttered, and replicas of the device have appeared throughout history in many different forms, from beasts to items of furniture. The Brazen Maiden is considered humane by comparison.