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113-477: The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus , the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity ( curiositas ) and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass . This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with inset tales . He finally finds salvation through

226-421: A working animal since that time. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as draught or pack animals . While working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence, small numbers of donkeys or asses are kept for breeding, as pets, and for livestock protection in developed countries. An adult male donkey

339-559: A 700,000-year-old middle Pleistocene horse metapodial bone from Canada implies a more recent 4.07 Myr before present date for the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) within the range of 4.0 to 4.5 Myr BP. The oldest divergencies are the Asian hemiones (subgenus E. ( Asinus ) , including the kulan , onager , and kiang ), followed by the African zebras (subgenera E. ( Dolichohippus ) , and E. ( Hippotigris ) ). All other modern forms including

452-457: A calming effect on nervous horses. If a donkey is introduced to a mare and foal , the foal may turn to the donkey for support after it has been weaned from its mother. A few donkeys are milked or raised for meat . Approximately 3.5 million donkeys and mules are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. In Italy, which has the highest consumption of equine meat in Europe and where donkey meat

565-468: A citizen criticises him and tells Thelyphron not to make fun of the task and warns him that shape-shifting witches are quite common in the area, using pieces of human flesh to fuel incantations. Thelyphron takes the job for a thousand drachme and is warned to stay very alert all through the night. The widow is at first hesitant, taking inventory of the body's intact parts. Thelyphron requests a meal and some wine, to which she promptly refuses and leaves him with

678-459: A cleft high beyond mortal reach. An eagle gathers the water for Psyche. Next, Psyche is demanded to seek some beauty from Proserpina , Queen of the Underworld. Attempting to kill herself to reach the underworld, Psyche ascends a great tower and prepares to throw herself down. The tower speaks, and teaches Psyche the way of the underworld. Psyche retrieves the beauty in a box, and, hoping to gain

791-410: A distinctive cross pattern on their backs. A jenny is normally pregnant for about 12 months, though the gestation period varies from 11 to 14 months, and usually gives birth to a single foal. Births of twins are rare, though less so than in horses. About 1.7 percent of donkey pregnancies result in twins; both foals survive in about 14 percent of those. In general jennies have a conception rate that

904-431: A female domesticated donkey (jenny), they represent the earliest known example of human-directed animal hybridization. They were produced at a breeding center at Nagar (modern Tell Brak ) and were sold or given as gifts throughout the region, where they became significant status symbols, pulling battle wagons and the chariots of kings, and also being sacrificed to bury with high-status people. They fell out of favor following

1017-416: A fight but not very bright, hot for a crotch, wine-botched, rather die than let a whim pass by—that was her." Apuleius' vocabulary is often eccentric and includes some archaic words. S. J. Harrison argues that some archaisms of syntax in the transmitted text may be the result of textual corruption. Madauros Madauros ( Madaurus , Madaura ) was a Roman - Berber city and a former diocese of

1130-462: A foal at side. The time lapse involved in rebreeding, and the length of a jenny's gestation, means that a jenny will have fewer than one foal per year. Because of this and the longer gestation period, donkey breeders do not expect to obtain a foal every year, as horse breeders often do, but may plan for three foals in four years. Donkeys can interbreed with other members of the family Equidae, and are commonly interbred with horses. The hybrid between

1243-457: A friend and miser, and his wife Pamphile. Photis, a serving girl in Milo's household, takes the narrator to the baths, after which the narrator goes to the marketplace. There, he buys some fish and runs into his old friend Pytheas, who is now a market official. Pytheas reveals the narrator's name as Lucius. Pytheas says that Lucius overpaid for the fish and humiliates the fish-monger by trampling on

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1356-457: A further six donkey breeds had official recognition. In developed countries, the welfare of donkeys both at home and abroad has become a concern, and a number of sanctuaries for retired and rescued donkeys have been set up. The largest is The Donkey Sanctuary near Sidmouth , England, which also supports donkey welfare projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kenya , and Mexico. In 2017, a drop in

1469-428: A horrid boy who torments him but the boy is later killed by a she-bear. Enraged, the boy's mother plans to kill the ass. A man arrives at the mother's house and announces that Tlepolemus and Charite are dead, caused by the scheming of the evil Thrasillus who wants Charite to marry him. After hearing the news of their master's death, the slaves run away, taking the ass Lucius with them. The large group of travelling slaves

1582-603: A jack and a mare is a mule , valued as a working and riding animal in many countries. Some large donkey breeds such as the Asino di Martina Franca , the Baudet du Poitou and the Mammoth Jack are raised only for mule production. The hybrid between a stallion and a jenny is a hinny , and is less common. Like other inter-species hybrids, mules and hinnies are usually sterile. Donkeys can also breed with zebras , in which case

1695-411: A journey, leaving his pregnant wife and infant son. He commands his wife that if she bears a daughter, the child is to be killed. The child is indeed a daughter, and in pity, the mother convinces her poor neighbours to raise her. Her daughter grows up ignorant of her origin, and when she reaches a marriageable age, the mother tells her son to deliver her daughter's dowry. The son begins preparation to marry

1808-403: A lamp for the night. A weasel enters the room and Thelyphron, frightened by its appearance, quickly chases it out, then falls into a deep sleep. At dawn, Thelyphron awakes and rushes over to the body in the room; to his relief, he finds the body intact. The widow enters, and calls for Thelyphron to be paid, satisfied with the intact corpse. Thanking the widow, Thelyphron is suddenly attacked by

1921-409: A laziness that can only worsen their poverty, the smith announces that he has sold the tub for six drachmae; to this his wife responds by saying that she has in fact already sold it for seven, and has sent the buyer into the tub to inspect it. Emerging, the lover complains that his supposed purchase is in need of a proper scrubbing if he is to close the deal, so the cuckolded smith gets a candle and flips

2034-454: A lifespan of 30 to 50 years. Donkeys are adapted to marginal desert lands. Unlike wild and feral horses , wild donkeys in dry areas are solitary and do not form harems . Each adult donkey establishes a home range; breeding over a large area may be dominated by one jack. The loud call or bray of the donkey, which typically lasts for twenty seconds and can be heard for over three kilometres, may help keep in contact with other donkeys over

2147-524: A lover. She frantically attempts to hide her lover in a drying cage in the ceiling, hidden by hanging clothes soaked in sulphur. The lover begins to sneeze, and at first the Fuller excuses his wife. After a few sneezes, the Fuller gets up and turns over the cage to find the lover waiting. The Fuller is talked out of beating the young man to death by the Baker, who points out that the young man will shortly die from

2260-495: A manner usually used with high ranking humans. These burials show the importance of donkeys to the early Egyptian state and its ruler. By the end of the fourth millennium BC, the donkey had spread to Southwest Asia, and the main breeding centre had shifted to Mesopotamia by 1800 BC. The breeding of large, white riding asses made Damascus famous, while Syrian breeders developed at least three other breeds, including one preferred by women for its easy gait . The Muscat or Yemen ass

2373-473: A member of the Roman country aristocracy, is forced to witness and share the miseries of slaves and destitute freemen who are reduced, like Lucius, to being little more than beasts of burden by their exploitation at the hands of wealthy landowners. The Golden Ass is the only surviving work of literature from the ancient Greco-Roman world to examine, from a first-hand perspective, the abhorrent condition of

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2486-399: A person has earned their confidence they can be willing and companionable partners and very dependable in work. Although formal studies of their behaviour and cognition are rather limited, donkeys appear to be quite intelligent, cautious, friendly, playful, and eager to learn. The donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years. Of the more than 40 million donkeys in

2599-461: A serious impact on the environment. They may compete with livestock and native animals for resources, spread weeds and diseases, foul or damage watering holes and cause erosion. The earliest documented donkey hybrid was the kunga , which was used as a draft animal in the Syrian and Mesopotamian kingdoms of the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. A cross between a captive male Syrian wild ass and

2712-407: A similar dried forage, with no more than a 1:4 ratio of legumes to grass. They also require salt and mineral supplements, and access to clean, fresh water. In temperate climates the forage available is often too abundant and too rich; over-feeding may cause weight gain and obesity, and lead to metabolic disorders such as founder ( laminitis ) and hyperlipaemia , or to gastric ulcers . Throughout

2825-470: A tough digestive system in which roughage is efficiently broken down by hind gut fermentation , microbial action in the caecum and large intestine . While there is no marked structural difference between the gastro-intestinal tract of a donkey and that of a horse, the digestion of the donkey is more efficient. It needs less food than a horse or pony of comparable height and weight, approximately 1.5 percent of body weight per day in dry matter, compared to

2938-586: A vision to him and explains to him how he can be returned to human form by eating the crown of roses that will be held by one of her priests during a religious procession the following day. In return for his redemption, Lucius is expected to be initiated through the Navigium Isidis into Isis' priesthood, Isis being the Queen of Heaven's true name. Lucius follows her instructions and is returned to human form and, at length, initiated into her priesthood. Lucius

3051-509: Is Arizona in 1679. By the Gold Rush years of the 19th century, the burro was the beast of burden of choice of early prospectors in the western United States. By the end of the placer mining boom, many of them escaped or were abandoned, and a feral population established itself. About 41 million donkeys were reported worldwide in 2006. China had the most with 11 million, followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia and Mexico. As of 2017, however,

3164-443: Is a jack or jackass , an adult female is a jenny or jennet , and an immature donkey of either sex is a foal . Jacks are often mated with female horses (mares) to produce mules ; the less common hybrid of a male horse (stallion) and jenny is a hinny . Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus , on the basis of the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However,

3277-462: Is an ugly witch who turns her ex-lovers into rather unfortunate animals. Aristomenes doesn't believe Socrates' tale but is nevertheless afraid. Aristomenes barricades the door and they both go to bed. In the middle of the night, Meroë and Panthia break in, cut open Socrates, drain his blood, rip out his heart, and replace it with a sponge. Before leaving, they urinate on Aristomenes. The witches spare Aristomenes because they want him to bury Socrates in

3390-514: Is approximately 3.5 million years old, and was located in the US state of Idaho. The genus appears to have spread quickly into the Old World, with the similarly aged Equus livenzovensis documented from western Europe and Russia. Molecular phylogenies indicate the most recent common ancestor of all modern equids (members of the genus Equus ) lived ~5.6 (3.9–7.8) mya. Direct paleogenomic sequencing of

3503-430: Is beaten by the gardener and chased by dogs. The thieves reclaim him and he is forced to go along with them; they talk about how their leader Thrasileon has been killed while dressed as a bear. The thieves also kidnap a rich young woman, Charite, who is housed in a cave with Lucius the ass. Charite starts crying, so an elderly woman who is in league with the thieves begins to tell her the story of Cupid and Psyche . Psyche

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3616-465: Is commonly believed that mules are more easily handled and also physically stronger than hinnies, making them more desirable for breeders to produce. The offspring of a zebra –donkey cross is called a zonkey, zebroid , zebrass, or zedonk; zebra mule is an older term, but still used in some regions today. The foregoing terms generally refer to hybrids produced by breeding a male zebra to a female donkey. Zebra hinny, zebret and zebrinny all refer to

3729-402: Is considered a species. At one time, the synonym ass was the more common term for the donkey. The first recorded use of donkey was in either 1784 or 1785. While the word ass has cognates in most other Indo-European languages , donkey is an etymologically obscure word for which no credible cognate has been identified. Hypotheses on its derivation include the following: From

3842-457: Is directed to never seek to see the face of her husband, who visits and makes love to her in the dark of night. Eventually, Psyche wishes to see her sisters, who jealously demand she seek to discover the identity of her husband. That night, Psyche discovers her husband is Cupid while he is sleeping, but accidentally burned him with her oil lamp. Infuriated, he flies to heaven and leaves her banished from her castle. In attempted atonement, Psyche seeks

3955-522: Is found out and jailed. Lucius comes into the legionary's possession, and after lodging with a decurion , Lucius recounts the Tale of the Murderous Wife . He is then sold to two brothers, a confectioner and a cook, who treat him kindly. When they go out, Lucius secretly eats his fill of their food. At first a source of vexation, when the ass is discovered to be the one behind the disappearing food it

4068-405: Is interested, and offers the teller a free lunch for his tale. Aristomenes goes on business for cheese and he runs into his friend Socrates, who is disheveled and emaciated. Aristomenes clothes Socrates and takes him to the bathhouse. Aristomenes berates Socrates for leaving his family. While they are eating lunch, Socrates tells about his affair with Meroë. Socrates tells Aristomenes that Meroë

4181-535: Is interrupted by The Tale of the Wife's Tub . Soon after, the Galli are accosted by an armed troop who accuse them of stealing from their village temple, and are subsequently detained (with the treasures returned). Lucius is sold into labor, driving a baker's mill-wheel. Lucius, though bemoaning his labor as an ass, also realizes that this state has allowed him to hear many novel things with his long-ass ears. The Tale of

4294-461: Is lower than that of horses (i.e., less than the 60–65% rate for mares). Although jennies come into heat within 9 or 10 days of giving birth, their fertility remains low, and it is likely the reproductive tract has not returned to normal. Thus it is usual to wait one or two further oestrous cycles before rebreeding, unlike the practice with mares. Jennies are usually very protective of their foals , and some will not come into estrus while they have

4407-434: Is mistaken for a band of robbers and attacked by farmhands of a rich estate. Several other misfortunes befall the travelers until they reach a village. Lucius as the narrator often digresses from the plot in order to recount several scandal-filled stories that he learns of during his journey. Lucius is eventually sold to a Gallus priest of Cybele . He is entrusted with carrying the statue of Cybele on his back while he follows

4520-538: Is much blessed and that he is to become once more initiated that he might supplicate in Rome as well. The story concludes with the goddess, Isis, appearing to Lucius and declaring that Lucius shall rise to a prominent position in the legal profession and that he shall be appointed to the College of Pastophori ("shrine-bearer", from Ancient Greek : παστοφόρος ) that he might serve the mysteries of Osiris and Isis. Lucius

4633-460: Is much laughed at and celebrated. Again he is sold, and he is taught many amusing tricks. Rumor spreads, and great fame comes to the ass and his master. As it happens, a woman is so enamored with the sideshow ass that she bribes his keeper and takes Lucius the ass to her bed. Lucius is then scheduled to have sex in the arena with a multiple murderess before she is to be eaten by wild beasts; the Tale of

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4746-468: Is next of kin to her husband for inheritance, the wife prepares a poison for both the doctor's widow and her daughter. The doctor's widow recognizes early the symptoms of the poison and rushes to the Governor's Home. She tells the Governor the whole of the connected murders and dies. The wife is sentenced to death by wild beasts and to have public intercourse with Lucius the ass. The text is a precursor to

4859-600: Is produced by soaking and stewing the hide to make a traditional Chinese medicine product. Ejiao , the gelatine produced by boiling donkey skins, can sell for up to $ 388 per kilogram, at October 2017 prices. During World War I John Simpson Kirkpatrick , a British stretcher bearer serving with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps , and Richard Alexander "Dick" Henderson of the New Zealand Medical Corps used donkeys to rescue wounded soldiers from

4972-517: Is reported to be rapidly shrinking, falling from 43.7 million to 43.5 million between 1995 and 2000, and to only 41 million in 2006. The fall in population is pronounced in developed countries; in Europe, the total number of donkeys fell from 3 million in 1944 to just over 1 million in 1994. The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System ( DAD-IS ) of the FAO listed 189 breeds of ass in June 2011. In 2000

5085-426: Is so happy that he goes about freely exposing his bald head. Similar to other picaresque novels , The Golden Ass features several shorter stories told by characters encountered by the protagonist. Some act as independent short stories, while others interlock with the original novel's plot developments. At the beginning of Book One, Lucius encounters two men arguing on the road about the truth of one's story. Lucius

5198-505: Is the main ingredient of several regional dishes, about 1,000 donkeys were slaughtered in 2010, yielding approximately 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) of meat. Asses' milk may command good prices: the average price in Italy in 2009 was €15 per litre, and a price of €6 per 100 ml was reported from Croatia in 2008; it is used for soaps and cosmetics as well as dietary purposes. The niche markets for both milk and meat are expanding. In

5311-411: Is the most beautiful woman on earth, and Venus jealously arranges for Psyche's destruction, ordering her son Cupid to arrange for her to fall in love with a worthless wretch. An oracle tells Psyche's parents to expose her on a mountain peak, where she will become the bride of a powerful, monstrous being. Psyche is left on the mountain, and carried away by a gentle wind. The elderly woman continues telling

5424-426: Is the most recent one (by R. Graves ): "She was malicious, cruel, spiteful, lecherous, drunken, selfish, obstinate." Read again the merry and expressive doggerel of Apuleius and it will be seen how little of his vision of life has been transferred into English. Lindsay's own version is: "She was lewd and crude, a toper and a groper, a nagging hag of a fool of a mule." Sarah Ruden 's recent translation is: "A fiend in

5537-538: Is the tale of Cupid and Psyche , encountered here for the first but not the last time in Western literature . Apuleius' style is innovative, mannered, baroque and exuberant, a far cry from the more sedate Latinity familiar from the schoolroom. In the introduction to his translation of The Golden Ass , Jack Lindsay writes: Let us glance at some of the details of Apuleius' style and it will become clear that English translators have not even tried to preserve and carry over

5650-435: Is then sent to his ancestral home, Rome, where he continues to worship Isis under the local name, Campensis. After a time, he is visited once more by the goddess, who speaks again of mysteries and holy rites which Lucius comes to understand as a command to be initiated into the mysteries of Isis . He does so. Shortly afterwards, he receives a third vision. Though he is confused, the god appears to him and reassures him that he

5763-530: The Catholic Church in the old state of Numidia , in present-day Algeria . The birth of the city dates back to the 5th century BC under the aegis of the Punics . Madauros was made a Roman colony at the end of the first century and was famous for its "schola". A colony of veterans was established there; it was called Colonia Flavia Augusta Veteranorum Madaurensium under emperor Nerva . The city

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5876-510: The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 2003 that if the domestic and the wild species are considered subspecies of a common species, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies was described after the domestic subspecies. This means that the proper scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when it is considered a subspecies and Equus asinus when it

5989-647: The (fictional) protagonist of the novel, is also from Madauros. Saint Augustine of Hippo studied in Madauros in the 4th century. Donkey The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass , Equus africanus , and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, Equus africanus asinus , or as a separate species , Equus asinus . It was domesticated in Africa some 5000–7000 years ago, and has been used mainly as

6102-490: The 18th century, donkey gradually replaced ass and jenny replaced she-ass , which is now considered archaic. The change may have come about through a tendency to avoid pejorative terms in speech and may be comparable to the substitution in North American English of rooster for cock , or that of rabbit for coney , which was formerly homophonic with cunny (a variation of the word cunt ). By

6215-447: The 2–2.5 percent consumption rate possible for a horse. Donkeys are also less prone to colic . The reasons for this difference are not fully understood; the donkey may have different intestinal flora to the horse, or a longer gut retention time. Donkeys obtain most of their energy from structural carbohydrates . Some suggest that a donkey needs to be fed only straw (preferably barley straw), supplemented with controlled grazing in

6328-828: The Americas on ships of the Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus , and were landed at Hispaniola in 1495. The first to reach North America may have been two animals taken to Mexico by Juan de Zumárraga , the first bishop of Mexico, who arrived there on 6 December 1528, while the first donkeys to reach what is now the United States may have crossed the Rio Grande with Juan de Oñate in April 1598. From that time on they spread northward, finding use in missions and mines. Donkeys were documented as present in what today

6441-577: The Chinese population was reported to have dropped to 3 million, with African populations under pressure as well, due to increasing trade and demand for donkey products in China. Some researchers believe the actual number may be somewhat higher since many donkeys go uncounted. The number of breeds and percentage of world population for each of the FAO's world regions was in 2006: In 1997 the number of donkeys in

6554-575: The Jealous Husband and The Tale of the Fuller's Wife mark a break in the narrative. The theme of the two intervening stories is adultery, and the text appropriately follows with the adultery of the baker's wife and the subsequent murder of the baker. Lucius the ass is then auctioned off to a farmer. The Tale of the Oppressive Landlord is here told. The farmer duly assaults a legionary who makes advances on his ass, Lucius, but he

6667-490: The Jealous Wife tells her backstory. After an enactment of the judgment of Paris , and a brief digression on philosophy and corruption, the time comes for Lucius to make his much-anticipated appearance. At the last moment he decides that copulating with such a wicked woman would be repugnant to him, and, moreover, the wild beasts would likely eat him along with her; and so he runs away to Cenchreae , eventually to nap on

6780-487: The United States, it is commonly applied to the feral donkeys that live west of the Rocky Mountains ; it may also refer to any small donkey. The genus Equus , which includes all extant equines, is believed to have evolved from Dinohippus , via the intermediate form Plesippus . One of the oldest species is Equus simplicidens , described as zebra-like with a donkey-shaped head. The oldest fossil to date

6893-581: The approval of her husband, opens the box to use a little. She is put into a coma. Cupid rescues her, and begs Jupiter that she may become immortal. Psyche is granted Ambrosia, and the two are forever united. The story is the best-known of those in The Golden Ass and frequently appears in or is referred to directly in later literature. In the course of a visit to an inn in Book Nine, a smith recounts an anecdote concerning his wife's deceit: During

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7006-985: The battlefield at Gallipoli . According to British food writer Matthew Fort , donkeys were used in the Italian Army . The Mountain Fusiliers each had a donkey to carry their gear, and in extreme circumstances the animal could be eaten . Donkeys have also been used to carry explosives in conflicts that include the war in Afghanistan and others. Donkey hooves are more elastic than those of horses, and do not naturally wear down as fast. Regular clipping may be required; neglect can lead to permanent damage. Working donkeys may need to be shod. Donkey shoes are similar to horseshoes , but usually smaller and without toe-clips. In their native arid and semi-arid climates, donkeys spend more than half of each day foraging and feeding, often on poor quality scrub. The donkey has

7119-489: The beach. Lucius wakes up in a panic during the first watch of the night. Considering Fate to be done tormenting him, he takes the opportunity to purify himself by seven consecutive immersions in the sea. He then offers a prayer to the Queen of Heaven , for his return to human form, citing all the various names the goddess is known by to people everywhere (Venus, Ceres, Diana, Proserpine, etc.). The Queen of Heaven appears in

7232-455: The crowd and narrowly escapes. He witnesses an elder of the town approach the townspeople desperately and claim that the widow had poisoned her husband to cover up a love affair. The widow protests and supposedly fakes her sadness and a necromancer is called to bring back the deceased for the only truly reliable testimony. The corpse awakes, and affirms the widow's guilt. The corpse then continues to talk and thanks Thelyphron for his trouble; during

7345-464: The crowd. The crowd laughs at Thelyphron's humiliation. In Book Four, an elderly woman tells the story to comfort the bandits' captives. The story is continued through Books Five and Six. Psyche, the most beautiful woman in the world, is envied by her family as well as by Venus. An oracle of Venus demands she be sent to a mountaintop and wed to a murderous beast. Sent by Venus to destroy her, Cupid falls in love and flies her away to his castle. There she

7458-417: The day, her husband absent at his labors, the smith's wife is engaged in an adulterous affair. One day, the smith, work finished well ahead of schedule, returns home prematurely—obviously to his wife's great consternation. Panicked, the faithless woman hides her lover in an old tub. After absorbing his spouse's efforts at distraction, which take the form of bitter reproaches that his coming back so early betokens

7571-485: The dead bodies; but when the three bodies of the murdered men are revealed, they turn out to be puffed-up wineskins. It turns out that it was a prank played by the town upon Lucius, to celebrate their annual Festival of Laughter. Later that day, Lucius and Photis watch Milo's wife perform her witchcraft and transform herself into a bird. Wishing to do the same, Lucius begs Photis to transform him, but she accidentally turns him into an ass , at which point Photis tells him that

7684-473: The development of long-distance trade across Egypt. In the Dynasty IV era of Egypt, between 2675 and 2565 BC, wealthy members of society were known to own over 1,000 donkeys, employed in agriculture, as dairy and meat animals and as pack animals. In 2003, the tomb of either King Narmer or King Hor-Aha (two of the first Egyptian pharaohs) was excavated and the skeletons of ten donkeys were found buried in

7797-402: The doctor into drinking from the cup to prove to her husband the drink is benign, and giving him the remainder. Unable to return home in time to seek an antidote, the doctor dies telling his wife what happened and to at least collect a payment for the poison. The doctor's widow asks for payment but first offers the wife the remainder of her husband's collection of poisons. Finding that her daughter

7910-559: The domesticated horse (and many fossil Pliocene and Pleistocene forms) belong to the subgenus E. ( Equus ) which diverged ~4.8 (3.2–6.5) million years ago. The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass . Remains of domestic donkeys dating to the fourth millennium BC have been found in Ma'adi in Lower Egypt, and it is believed that

8023-516: The domestication of the donkey was accomplished long after the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats in the seventh and eighth millennia BC. Donkeys were probably first domesticated by pastoral people in Nubia , and they supplanted the ox as the chief pack animal of that culture. The domestication of donkeys served to increase the mobility of pastoral cultures, having the advantage over ruminants of not needing time to chew their cud , and were vital in

8136-564: The end of the 17th century, changes in pronunciation of both ass and arse had caused them to become homophones in some varieties of English. Other words used for the ass in English from this time include cuddy in Scotland, neddy in southwestern England and dicky in southeastern England; moke is documented in the 19th century and may be of Welsh or Romani origin. Burro is a word for donkey in both Spanish and Portuguese . In

8249-634: The fish. Lucius returns to Milo's house, hungry and empty-handed. Milo asks Lucius about his life, his friends, and his wanderings, which Lucius grows bored with. Lucius goes to sleep hungry. The next morning, Lucius meets up with his aunt Byrrhena in the town, and she brings him home and warns him that Milo's wife is an evil witch who wants to kill Lucius, who is interested in becoming a witch himself. He then returns to Milo's house, where he makes love to Photis. The next day, Lucius goes to his aunt's home for dinner, and there meets Thelyphron, who relates his tale about how witches cut off his nose and ears. After

8362-418: The girl off to a friend, and lets her into his home under the guise of her being an orphan to all but the two of them. His wife is unaware the girl is his sister, and believes he keeps her as a mistress. His wife steals her husband's signet ring and visits their country home accompanied by a group of slaves. She sends a slave with the signet to fetch the girl and bring her to the country home. The girl, aware that

8475-469: The global donkey population could be reduced by half over the next half decade as the demand for ejiao increases in China. Donkeys vary considerably in size, depending on both breed and environmental conditions, and heights at the withers range from less than 90 centimetres (35 in) to approximately 150 cm (59 in). Working donkeys in the poorest countries have a life expectancy of 12 to 15 years; in more prosperous countries, they may have

8588-497: The ground, and then proceeds on his way. In Book Two, Thelyphron hesitantly relates a story requested at a dinner party that was previously popular with his friends: While a student, Thelyphron partakes in many wanderings and eventually runs out of funds. At Larissa, he encounters a large sum being offered to watch over a corpse for the night. Thelyphron is bemused and asks if the dead are accustomed to flee in Larissa. When he asks,

8701-428: The group of priests on their rounds, who perform ecstatic rites in local farmsteads and estates for alms. While engaging in lewd activity with a local boy, the group of priests is discovered by a man in search of a stolen ass who mistakes Lucius' braying for that of his own animal. The priests flee to a new city where they are well received by one of its chief citizens. They are preparing to dine when his cook realizes that

8814-438: The husband is her brother, responds immediately, and on arrival at the country home is flogged by the wife's slaves, and put to death by a torch placed 'between her thighs'. The girl's brother takes the news and falls gravely ill. Aware of suspicions around her, his wife asks a corrupt doctor for instant poison. Accompanied by the doctor, she brings the poison to her husband in bed. Finding him surrounded by friends, she first tricks

8927-513: The intervention of the goddess Isis , whose cult he joins. The date of composition of the Metamorphoses is uncertain. It has variously been considered by scholars as a youthful work preceding Apuleius' Apology of 158–159, or as the climax of his literary career, and perhaps as late as the 170s or 180s. Apuleius adapted the story from a Greek original of which the author's name is said to be an otherwise unknown "Lucius of Patrae ", also

9040-417: The introduction of the domestic horse and its donkey hybrid, the mule , into the region at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. A male donkey (jack) crossed with a female horse produces a mule , while a male horse crossed with a jenny produces a hinny . Horse–donkey hybrids are almost always sterile because of a failure of their developing gametes to complete meiosis. The lower progesterone production of

9153-399: The jenny may also lead to early embryonic loss . In addition, there are reasons not directly related to reproductive biology. Due to different mating behavior, jacks are often more willing to cover mares than stallions are to breed jennies. Further, mares are usually larger than jennies and thus have more room for the ensuing foal to grow in the womb, resulting in a larger animal at birth. It

9266-435: The land. Aristomenes fears that he will be blamed for the death of his friend and attempts to hang himself, but is comically stopped when the rope is revealed to be too rotten to support his weight. In the morning, Socrates wakes up and everything seems to be normal. They continue travelling and reach a stream, where Socrates bends to take a drink, which causes the sponge to fall out and him to die. Aristomenes buries Socrates in

9379-412: The least tincture of his manner ... Take the description of the baker's wife: saeva scaeva virosa ebriosa pervicax pertinax ...  The nagging clashing effect of the rhymes gives us half the meaning. I quote two well-known versions: "She was crabbed, cruel, cursed, drunken, obstinate, niggish, phantasmagoric." "She was mischievous, malignant, addicted to men and wine, forward and stubborn." And here

9492-634: The literary genre of the episodic picaresque novel , in which Francisco de Quevedo , François Rabelais , Giovanni Boccaccio , Miguel de Cervantes , Voltaire , Daniel Defoe and many others have followed. It is an imaginative, irreverent, and amusing work that relates the ludicrous adventures of one Lucius, a virile young man who is obsessed with magic . Finding himself in Thessaly , the "birthplace of magic," Lucius eagerly seeks an opportunity to see magic being used. His overenthusiasm leads to his accidental transformation into an ass . In this guise, Lucius,

9605-446: The lower classes. Yet despite its serious subject matter, the novel remains imaginative, witty, and often sexually explicit. Numerous amusing stories, many of which seem to be based on actual folk tales , with their ordinary themes of simple-minded husbands, adulterous wives, and clever lovers, as well as the magical transformations that characterize the entire novel, are included within the main narrative. The longest of these inclusions

9718-405: The meal, Lucius drunkenly returns to Milo's house in the dark, where he encounters three robbers, whom he soon slays before retiring to bed. The next morning, Lucius is abruptly awoken and arrested for the murder of the three men. He is taken to court where he is laughed at constantly and witnesses are brought against him. They are just about to announce his guilt when the widow demands to bring out

9831-437: The meat that was to be served was stolen by a dog. The cook, at the suggestion of his wife, prepares to kill Lucius in order to serve his meat instead. Lucius' untimely escape from the cook coincides with an attack by rabid dogs, and his wild behavior is attributed to their viral bites. The men barricade him in a room until it is decided that he is no longer infected. The band of Galli eventually pack up and leave. The narrative

9944-741: The name of the lead character and narrator. This Greek text by Lucius of Patrae has been lost , but there is Lucius or the Ass ( Λούκιος ἢ ὄνος , Loukios ē onos ), a similar tale of disputed authorship, traditionally attributed to the writer Lucian , a contemporary of Apuleius. This surviving Greek text appears to be an abridgement or epitome of Lucius of Patrae's text. The Metamorphoses has survived in about 40 manuscripts, all or almost all of which are descendants of codex Laurentianus 68.2 (also called F in critical apparatuses ), an extant 11th-century manuscript produced in Monte Cassino . Editors of

10057-410: The night the witches entered as small animals and began to call the corpse and wake him up. By chance, Thelyphron was both the name of the corpse and the guard. Consequently, the witches steal pieces of his ears and nose instead of from the corpse. The witches cleverly replace the missing flesh with wax to delay discovery. Thelyphron touches his nose and ears to find wax fall out of where they once were in

10170-474: The number of breeds of donkey recorded worldwide was 97, and in 1995 it was 77. The rapid increase is attributed to attention paid to identification and recognition of donkey breeds by the FAO's Animal Genetic Resources project. The rate of recognition of new breeds has been particularly high in some developed countries. In France only one breed, the Baudet du Poitou, was recognised until the early 1990s; by 2005,

10283-532: The number of Chinese donkeys, combined with the fact that they are slow to reproduce, meant that Chinese suppliers began to look to Africa. As a result of the increase in demand, and the price that could be charged, Kenya opened three donkey abattoirs. Concerns for donkeys' well-being, however, have resulted in a number of African countries (including Uganda , Tanzania , Botswana , Niger , Burkina Faso , Mali , and Senegal ) banning China from buying their donkey products. In 2019, The Donkey Sanctuary warned that

10396-433: The offspring is called a zonkey (among other names). Donkeys have a notorious reputation for stubbornness, but this has been attributed to a much stronger sense of self-preservation than exhibited by horses. Likely based on a stronger prey instinct and a weaker connection with humans, it is considerably more difficult to force or frighten a donkey into doing something it perceives to be dangerous for whatever reason. Once

10509-476: The only way for him to return to his human state is to eat a fresh rose. She puts him in the stable for the night and promises to bring him roses in the morning, but during the night Milo's house is raided by a band of thieves, who steal Lucius the ass, load him up with their plunder, and leave with him. On a break in his journey with the bandits, Lucius the ass trots over to a garden to munch on what seem to be roses (but are actually poisonous rose-laurels ) when he

10622-466: The past, donkey skin was used in the production of parchment . In 2017, the UK based charity The Donkey Sanctuary estimated that 1.8 million skins were traded every year, but the demand could be as high as 10 million. In China, donkey meat is considered a delicacy with some restaurants specializing in such dishes, and Guo Li Zhuang restaurants offer the genitals of donkeys in dishes. Donkey-hide gelatin

10735-529: The philosophers Plutarch and Sextus of Chaeronea . The narrator journeys to Thessaly on business. On the way, he runs into Aristomenes and an unnamed traveler. The unnamed traveler refuses to believe Aristomenes' story. The narrator insults the unnamed traveler and tells a short story about a sword swallower. He promises Aristomenes a free lunch if he will retell his tale . The narrator believes Aristomenes' tale and becomes more eager to learn about magic. The narrator arrives at Hypata, where he stays with Milo,

10848-501: The promise of his protection for allowing him a night with Aretë. Becoming obsessed with gold, Myrmex delivers the message to Aretë and Philesietaerus pays Myrmex a further ten pieces. While Aretë and Philesietaerus are making love, Barbarus returns but is locked out of the house. Philesietaerus leaves in a hurry, leaving behind his shoes. Barbarus does not notice the strange shoes until the morning, at which point he chains Myrmex's hands and drags him through town, screaming, while looking for

10961-480: The shoes' owner. Philesietaerus spots the two, runs up, and with great confidence shouts at Myrmex, accusing him of stealing his shoes. Barbarus allows Myrmex to live, but beats him for the 'theft'. In Book Nine the baker's wife attempts to hide her lover from her husband, and entertains to her husband's story of the Fuller : While coming home with the Baker for supper, the Fuller interrupts his wife's love-making with

11074-434: The story of Cupid and Psyche, as Psyche is forced to perform various tasks for Venus (including an errand to the underworld) with the help of Cupid and an assortment of friendly creatures, and is finally reunited with her husband. Then Jupiter transforms Psyche into a goddess. That is the end of the tale. Lucius the ass and Charite escape from the cave but they are caught by the thieves, and sentenced to death. A man appears to

11187-475: The story of Cupid and Psyche. Cupid, Venus's son, secretly protects Psyche; Cupid becomes Psyche's mysterious husband, who is invisible to her by day and visits her only at night. Psyche's jealous sisters arouse her curiosity and fear about her husband's identity; Psyche, against Cupid's commands, looks at him by lamplight which wakes Cupid; Cupid abandons Psyche, who wanders in search of him, and takes revenge on her wicked sisters. The elderly woman finishes telling

11300-525: The story of one of the wife's previous school friends: Barbarus, an overbearing husband, is forced to leave on a business trip, and commands his slave, Myrmex, to watch his wife, Aretë, closely to assure she is being faithful during his time away. Barbarus tells Myrmex that any failure will result in his death. Myrmex is so intimidated that he does not let Aretë out of his sight. Aretë's looks charm Philesietaerus who vows to go to any lengths to gain her love. Philesietaerus bribes Myrmex with thirty gold pieces and

11413-406: The sulphur fumes if left in the cage. The Fuller agrees and returns the lover to the cage. The tale is used to contrast the earlier tale told to the Baker's wife of high suspicion and quick judgments of character by her 'auntie' with the overly naive descriptions of nefarious people by her husband. In Book Ten a woman condemned to public humiliation with Lucius tells him her crimes: A man goes on

11526-507: The summer or hay in the winter, to get all the energy, protein, fat and vitamins it requires; others recommend some grain to be fed, particularly to working animals, and others advise against feeding straw. They do best when allowed to consume small amounts of food over long periods. They can meet their nutritional needs on 6 to 7 hours of grazing per day on average dryland pasture that is not stressed by drought. If they are worked long hours or do not have access to pasture, they require hay or

11639-411: The temple of Venus and offers herself as a slave. Venus assigns Psyche four impossible tasks. First, she is commanded to sort through a great hill of mixed grains. In pity, many ants aid her in completing the task. Next, she is commanded to retrieve wool of the dangerous golden sheep. A river god aids Psyche and tells her to gather clumps of wool from thorn bushes nearby. Venus next requests water from

11752-416: The text have therefore seen it as their goal to apply textual criticism to this particular manuscript, ignoring the rest except for occasional consultation. The text is characterized by a number of non-standard spellings, notably the frequent interchange of the letters b and v . The prologue establishes an audience and a speaker, who defines himself by location, education, occupation, and his kinship with

11865-457: The thieves and announces that he is the renowned thief Haemus the Thracian , who suggests that they should not kill the captives but sell them. Haemus later reveals himself secretly to Charite as her fiancé Tlepolemus, and gets all of the thieves drunk. When they are asleep he slays them all. Tlepolemus, Charite and Lucius the ass safely escape back to the town. Once there, the ass is entrusted to

11978-481: The tub to clean it from underneath. The canny adulteress then lies atop of the tub and while her lover pleasures her, instructs her hapless husband as to where he should apply his energies. To add insult to injury, the ill-used man eventually has to deliver the tub to the lover's house himself. In Book Nine, a baker's wife of poor reputation is advised by a female 'confidant' to be wary of choosing her lover, suggesting she find one very strong of body and will. She relates

12091-399: The wide spaces of the desert. Donkeys have large ears, which may pick up more distant sounds, and may help cool the donkey's blood. Donkeys can defend themselves by biting, striking with the front hooves or kicking with the hind legs. Their vocalization, called a bray, is often represented in English as "hee haw". Most donkeys have dorsal and shoulder stripes, primitive markings which form

12204-423: The world was reported to be continuing to grow, as it had steadily done throughout most of history; factors cited as contributing to this were increasing human population, progress in economic development and social stability in some poorer nations, conversion of forests to farm and range land, rising prices of motor vehicles and fuel, and the popularity of donkeys as pets. Since then, the world population of donkeys

12317-699: The world, about 96% are in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as pack animals or for draught work in transport or agriculture. After human labour, the donkey is the cheapest form of agricultural power. They may also be ridden, or used for threshing, raising water, milling and other work. Some cultures that prohibit women from working with oxen in agriculture do not extend this taboo to donkeys. In developed countries where their use as beasts of burden has disappeared, donkeys are used to sire mules, to guard sheep , for donkey rides for children or tourists, and as pets. Donkeys may be pastured or stabled with horses and ponies, and are thought to have

12430-800: The world, working donkeys are associated with the very poor, with those living at or below subsistence level. Few receive adequate food, and in general donkeys throughout the Third World are under-nourished and over-worked. In some areas domestic donkeys have returned to the wild and established feral populations such as those of the burro of North America and the Asinara donkey of Sardinia , Italy, both of which have protected status. Feral donkeys can also cause problems, notably in environments that have evolved free of any form of equid , such as Hawaii. In Australia, where there may be 5 million feral donkeys , they are regarded as an invasive pest and have

12543-457: Was developed in Arabia . By the second millennium BC, the donkey was brought to Europe, possibly at the same time as viticulture was introduced, as the donkey is associated with the Syrian god of wine, Dionysus . Greeks spread both of these to many of their colonies, including those in what are now Italy, France and Spain; Romans dispersed them throughout their empire. The first donkeys came to

12656-519: Was forced into exile alongside others present at the Synod of 484 because of the Vandal king Huneric . The ruins of Madauros are close to the actual city of M'Daourouch ( Arabic : مداوروش ) in present-day Algeria . It is possible to see: Apuleius , the author of the famous novel The Golden Ass , which is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety, was born in Madauros in the 120s. Lucius,

12769-402: Was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers who spoke mainly African Romance , according to Theodor Mommsen. Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this diocese : Antigonus, who celebrated the 349 Council of Carthage ; Placentius, who celebrated the 407 Council of Carthage and Conference of 411 ; and Pudentius, who

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