Both the donkey and the mule were certainly known and used in antiquity. Mules were used for both riding and pulling carts; from 500 BC onwards there were mule-drawn chariot races at the Olympic games, and one of Pindar’s odes celebrates such a victory (Olympian 6, 468 BC). However, what must have been an undignified event did not sustain his popularity, and he was abandoned in 444 BC.
Aelian says that an old Athenian mule, which worked long and hard on the construction of the Parthenon, was fed at public funds in the town hall (prytaneion) for the rest of its life. Donkeys, like today, were used primarily for riding and as beasts of burden. Often associated with the god Dionysus and his drunken and rowdy followers, they are easily identified on painted vessels by their characteristic long ears and evidence of sexual arousal. The remains of a donkey were found in the kitchen of a house, a victim of the destruction of Athens by the Heruli in 267 AD.
Ancient Athenian literature is full of references to the horse, which played an important role in the social, political, and military life of Athens. Athenian sculptors, painters, and potters found horses a popular subject from the beginnings of Greek art to the end of antiquity. The excavation of the archives of the cavalry and the monuments of victory, as well as the road used for processions and the training of horses, have shown that the Agora, the focus of much of Athenian life, was also for centuries the center of equestrian activity in the ancient city. .