Both the donkey and the mule were certainly known and used in ancient times. 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 maintain its popularity and it was abandoned in 444 BC.

Aelian says that an old Athenian mule, who worked long and hard on the construction of the Parthenon, was fed from public funds at the town hall (prytaneion) for the rest of his life. Donkeys, like today, were used primarily for riding and as beasts of burden. Often associated with the god Dionysus and his drunken and noisy followers, they are easily identified on painted vessels by their characteristic long ears and evidence of sexual arousal. 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 beginning of Greek art to the end of antiquity. Excavation of chivalric archives and victory monuments, as well as the causeway used for processions and horse training, has shown that the Agora, the focus of much Athenian life, was also for centuries the center of equestrian activity in the ancient city. .