The Captive Woman
This story starts off with some robbers getting together, pouring wine out of golden glasses to remember their dead comrades, and singing songs to honor their God Mars. shortly after this, they fell asleep. An old woman gets some barley and the horse starts eating it, meanwhile, the donkey went to go search for some bread because he was starving and hadn't eaten. The robbers woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed their weapons and left where they had been staying. Lucius who was previously a person and had been turned into a donkey was on his third basket of bread as dawn approached. Lucius went to the stream to get some water when he noticed that the robbers were returning to the site where they had been staying. They came back with no goods, but instead with a girl who you could tell came from a very well respected family of that region. The robbers tried to calm her down by talking to her and telling her not to be scared, for they just needed money and poverty had led them to do this. They were sure that her parents would not hesitate to pay to have their daughter back. The girl was not soothed by this so they called the old lady over to try to comfort her, but nothing was working and the girl was crying uncontrollably. She was crying and telling the old lady that she had been taken from her family and deprived of the comforts that she was born and raised to. She said, why should I stop crying, for how do I even know if I will live. She finally fell asleep and after a bit, she arose suddenly and started tormenting herself violently by pounding her breasts and tearing her face. The old lady was now starting to get angry and asked her why on earth she was crying. She said, "You better not try to cheat my men out of profit or I will see you roasted alive.
The donkey that Lucius was turned into;
Source: Wikimedia
Bibliography: The Captive Women, Translated into English by Tony Kline
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