One of the most horrific tortures during the Ottoman period was that of the hooks or "tsigkelia", as the Muslim Turks called them. On the walls of cities or on specially erected scaffolds, large hooks with sharp, sharpened points were fixed. The naked victim, a Christian, was thrown onto the hooks from high up on the walls or was hoisted up with special pulleys and dropped onto the hooks of the scaffolds. There he remained impaled for days, tormented by terrible pains until he finally expired. If, moreover, the hooks had not pierced a vital organ, the torture could last several days. Historical accounts mention the presence of such a scaffold with hooks in the central square of Heraklion (Candia), where many Cretans, mainly rebels, met their tragic end. The Ottoman lords had a well-known proverb on their lips: "A head that does not bow falls." The execution of the sentence was carried out in public view by a specialized executioner called makelaris (a Greek-Byzantine word meaning "butcher"), with the well-known curved Ottoman sword, the yataghan. The victim arrived at the place of slaughter ridiculed and publicly shamed. Before the execution he had, as a rule, been beaten and often mutilated. The punishment itself was painless and instantaneous, but the entire preceding process made it agonizing. The body and head remained exposed for days. Often the victim's head was impaled on a pole and paraded through the city, especially if the victim happened to be an officially wanted person. Other times it was preserved and sent to the Sultan himself. Still other times the head remained hung or impaled in a prominent position for days, until the natural decomposition of its features began. The torture of beheading was naturally also connected with the fate of the Four Martyrs who concern us in the present work. Indeed, the Synaxarion of the Saints confirms everything we have said so far. After harsh tortures and public humiliation through the streets of Rethymno, the Saints ended up in the square of the Great Gate, which today bears their name in their honor, to be beheaded. Apart from the official executions, there were also the mass slaughters of Christian populations in cases where the Islamic-Ottoman state wanted to demonstrate its power. The main pretext for the massacres was reprisals against revolutionary movements. Alongside the official figures who were publicly executed (bishops, notables, etc.), unruly hordes of Janissaries would rush into Christian homes, break down doors, kill anyone they found in front of them, and then plunder the house, seizing whatever they liked. When leaving, in many cases they also set the house on fire. Theochares Detorakis, in his "History of Crete", conveys a chilling piece of information. When they killed Bishop Gerasimos of Rethymno in 1821, they opened his chest, removed his heart, and sprinkled their banners with its blood in order to achieve victories against the infidels. The entire description of the incident directly evokes cannibalism from a primitive era. - Homer Pavlos