Legend of the Golden Chariot of Phalaride
Well included in the LIM register of the Sicily Region (Places of myth and legends) - Sector "Places of Plutonic legends and treasures" in the following sub-category: Legend of the Golden Chariot of Falaride: Hypogeum of Purgatory or Labyrinth in via Atenea
The city of Agrigento was founded in 582 BC After about 10 years it suffered the tyranny under Phalaris (572 BC), famous for its cruelty. He was a very rich merchant, he had been entrusted with a large sum of money that was to be used for the construction of the temple dedicated to Zeus (the Roman Jupiter), but instead he appropriated the money, hiring an army of mercenaries with it. As soon as he had the opportunity, he took advantage of the fact that the people were gathered for a religious feast in honor of Ceres, fell with his army of mercenaries on the crowd making a real massacre and forcing the survivors, mainly women and children, to submit. at his will.
The Bull of Falaride
Few tyrants in the history of Sicilian tyranny have been spoken of as badly as Phalaride, it was said that he sometimes had the habit of dining with the meat of children of milk age, he often loved to torture his enemies. One of his favorite instruments of torture was the famous hollow bronze bull, whose back was made in such a way that a man could be opened and introduced into its belly, after which the fire was lit under it. It seems that the thing that amused him more than anything else were the screams emitted by the unfortunate roast, which they say resembled the bellowing of a bull. Phalaris used the kindness of testing the bull, to the inventor of the hateful instrument himself. The bull, after the fall of the tyrant, was thrown into the sea. According to another version it was found by the Punic in 406 BC and brought to Carthage as a war trophy.
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: web
Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero Web,
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