Brian

Durin the Ottoman period, the Muslim Turks, impaled and roasted alive the Greek Christian Athanasios Diakos. But, they gave him a chance: "Will you become a Turk, Diakos? Will you change your faith? Will you pray in the mosque and abandon the church?" He replied to them: "Go away, you and your faith, may you perish, you heathens! I was born a Greek, and as a Greek I shall die." According to eyewitness accounts of the time, two Turks kindled a fire beside the stable and set an iron grate over it, with a large copper cauldron of oil above the flames. They then lifted Diakos, still bound, and seated him on an old wooden stool. His legs were raised. The Turks began to mock him and put questions to him. At every negative nod they drove nails into his feet. Afterward they took the boiling oil and poured it first over his bare feet. Seeing that he gave no reaction, they tore his clothing and began pouring the oil over his back and chest. He groaned quietly under the pain. The soldiers, ordered not to kill him, used needles to burst the blisters that the boiling oil raised on his skin. This went on for hours, until the following morning. Exhausted, he was dragged through the town to be put to death. The execution was carried out in public view, by leave of Halil Bey, so that the Greeks would be warned of the fate awaiting anyone who dared to rise in revolt. Diakos’s mother was present at his torture. After he had been tied backward onto a saddle with his legs forced apart, the executioner began pressing the sharpened point of a wooden stake into his groin and then drove it slowly deeper, through the length of his body, until it emerged near his right ear. The executioner worked with care, under orders not to kill him quickly; with every thrust of the stake, Diakos’s cries showed that he was still alive. When the executioner had finished, the Turks bound the body tightly to the stake so the skin would not tear, and propped him nearly upright against a tree. As he was dying, he is said to have spoken these sorrowful lines: "Look at the hour Death has chosen to take me, now, when the branches are in blossom and the earth brings forth grass." (Sources: Spyridon Trikoupis "History of the Greek Revolution", Aristotelis Valaoritis "Athanasios Diakos" 1867, Georg Gottfried Gervinus "History of the Revolution and Rebirth of Greece", Songs of the Greek People 1821) Halil Bey ordered a fire to be lit beneath him and the body turned slowly, so that he would be roasted alive like an animal. After many hours of torment, the Greek captain died on April 24, 1821. When the Greeks learned of his story and his martyrdom, they were filled with even greater rage and strength to liberate themselves from the barbarous Muslims and Islam. Athanasios Diakos is one of the most important heroes in the Greek history. If you want to support me in the effort I’m making, please consider becoming a subscriber to my X account for only $2. I write about the ancient, medieval, and modern history of Greece and what Christians went through in Asia Minor, Greece, and Cyprus because of Islam. Thank you very much to those of you who support me and read me. - Homer Pavlos

The Muslim Turks loved flaying alive Christians. During the Ottoman period, they applied it mainly against Greek rebels to deter and discipline others. As usual, the Christian victim was beaten, publicly humiliated, and tied to a special scaffold for immobilization. Then, skilled executioners removed his skin with sharp knives before the crowd. Here are 3 characteristic cases. The first concerns Dionysios, Greek Bishop of Larisa and Trikki, who lived in the 16th–17th centuries. An enlightened hierarch with brilliant studies in philosophy, medicine, theology, and more at major Western universities, he earned the title "Philosopher." In the early 17th century (1601 and 1611), he initiated two revolutionary movements in Thessaly and Epirus. Both failed, and in 1611 he was captured alive. In Ioannina's central square, before a crowd, he was skinned alive in a martyrdom lasting five hours, aged around 70. The vandalism continued: his flayed body was thrown to dogs, while his skin was stuffed with straw and bran, dressed in archiepiscopal vestments, and paraded through the city with music for days. Finally, it was sent to the Sultan and ended up discarded in the royal stables. Another well-known case is that of Daskalogiannis. On June 17, 1771, he was led to a central square in Chandax (Heraklion). A wooden scaffold with a special seat had been erected. Tied tightly to it, he was flayed starting from the head by a monstrous executioner who threw pieces of skin to the crowd, saying: "Take leather for your boots!" A second executioner periodically showed him his flayed face in a mirror, mocking: "Look, captain, how well the red suits you!" Relatives (brother and daughter) in the crowd went mad at the sight. He endured steadfastly and died when the flaying reached his shoulder blades. His flayed body remained exposed in the June heat for days in that square (now named in his honor) until the stench forced the Turks to bury it. The third case is that of the Venetian Marco Antonio Bragadin. He was executed by flaying in August 1571 in Famagusta, Cyprus, after defending the island alongside the Greeks. They first cut off both of Bragadin’s ears and his nose. While he was in captivity, a massacre of all the remaining Christians in the city took place. After being left in prison for two weeks with his wounds festering, he was dragged around the city walls carrying sacks of earth and stone on his back. Next, he was tied to a chair and hoisted to the yardarm of the Turkish flagship, where he was exposed to the taunts of the sailors. Finally, he was taken to the main square, tied naked to a column, and flayed alive. Bragadin’s quartered body was then distributed as war trophies among the army, while his skin was stuffed with straw, sewn back together, reinvested with his military insignia, and exhibited riding an ox in a mocking procession through the streets of Famagusta. In 1580, his skin was stolen by Girolamo Polidori and brought back to Venice, where it remains today in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo. The martyrdom of flaying (skinning alive) is ancient. Herodotus mentions that it was originally practiced by the Scythians. He describes how the barbarians Scythian warriors treated conquered foes, using their enemies' skin to manufacture leather trophy items. Archaeology has confirmed Herodotus' account. Scalp flaying was called "periskythismos" due to this Scythian custom. It was always a sign of barbarity and fortunately an exception rather than the rule. The punishment was also used by the Romans during persecutions of Christian martyrs, the best-known case being the apostle Bartholomew. If you want to support me in the effort I’m making, please consider becoming a subscriber to my X account for only $2. I write about the ancient, medieval, and modern history of Greece and what Christians went through because of Islam. Always with primary sources and historical facts. - Homer Pavlos