[1] According to Diodorus Siculus, recounting the story in Bibliotheca historica, Perilaus (Περίλαος) (or Perillus (Πέριλλος)) of Athens invented and proposed it to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, as a new means of execution.

According to legend, when the bull was reopened after a body was charred, the victim's scorched bones then "shone like jewels and were made into bracelets.

"[6] Stories allege after finishing construction on the execution device, Perilaus said to Phalaris: "His screams will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings."

[8] The same happened to Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian and the first martyr in Asia Minor, who was roasted to death in a brazen bull in 92 AD.

[9][better source needed] The device is claimed to have still been in use two centuries later, when by some legends, another Christian, Pelagia of Tarsus, is said to have been burned in one in 287 AD by the Emperor Diocletian.