For thousands of years animals have helped humans survive (food source), thrive (companion animals), stay healthy (drug production) and even make beautiful (adornments). Donkeys are no exception. The following are just a few of the ways in which donkeys have aided human health and beauty through history.
Donkey Milk and Beauty
Cleopatra (60-39 BC), was reputed to have bathed in asses milk and Nero’s mistress and later second wife, Poppaea (AD 30-65), certainly did. Why? Here’s what Pliny tells us about ass milk and Poppaea in his chapter on remedies for diseases of the face from his book, Natural History:
“It is generally believed that asses’ milk effaces wrinkles in the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its whiteness: and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the habit of washing their face with it […]. Poppaea, the wife of the Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this; indeed, she had sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses’ milk, for which purpose whole troops of she-asses used to attend her on her journeys.”
It must have been a time-consuming business; allegedly, it took hundreds of donkeys to provide enough milk for Cleopatra. Imagine how long it would have taken to milk them all!
Donkey Milk and Medicine
Donkey milk was also believed to have medicinal properties. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC) claimed that it was good for all sorts of health issues including diseases of the liver, asthma and fevers. Pliny (AD c.23–79) also got in on the act, extolling the medicinal virtues of donkeys milk as a remedy for: gout; some diseases of the eye and ear; toothache; asthma; and even as a neutralising agent for some ingested poisons. It sounds like our ancient counterparts held great sway in the efficacy of donkey milk.
Our ancient counterparts recognised that donkey milk was suitable for infants; in fact, donkey milk is the closest to human breast milk. In some places in the world, it is still used as a substitute for cow’s milk, particularly for young children with allergies, thanks to its high protein, low fat and anti-allergenic properties. The only reason it is not used more widely is due to the donkey’s low milk yields and thus high price.
The medieval encyclopedist, Thomas of Cantimpré (AD 1201-72), also noted that ass’s milk was good for soothing toothache. Even today anyone who is unlucky enough to lose a tooth (i.e. it falls out) is recommended to place it in a glass of milk and get to a dentist quick smart. It seems that milk maintains an optimal acid-alkaline ratio and keeping the tooth moist helps to preserve it until a dentist can reposition it in its socket.
Donkeys and Beauty
Just as donkey milk has kept people healthy and beautiful throughout the ages, other parts of the donkey have supposedly kept people beautiful, particularly in the Middle Ages. And so, I’m giving the last word today to Albert the Great (AD 1200-80), another encyclopaedist and contemporary of Thomas. In his encyclopedia on animals – De Animalibus – he provided several beautifying recipes. Here are two: one, a medieval perm solution and two, a medieval visit to the (eye)brow bar.
Anyone desiring curly hair should anoint their straight hair with the dung of the wild ass ground up with the bile of oxen, and any woman who had overplucked their eyebrows should ground burned ass’s liver into a little bit of collyrium (then add oil and the fat of a bear to liquefy to a honey consistency, before pasting over the eyebrow location to encourage regrowth. It looks like this woman (from a time and place when the unibrow was de rigeur) was a good advert for the effectiveness of the eyebrow remedy!
This blog has looked at a few ways in which the donkey aided human health and beauty during ancient and medieval times. Next time, the focus will be on some modern-day cultural beliefs towards the donkey and its supposed healing properties – be warned, the outlook for the donkey is not promising.
Sources Used
The Natural History of Pliny, trans., John Bostock and H.T. Riley. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855-1857.
theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-knocked-out-teeth-are-history-9181
Albertus Magnus, On Animals: A Medieval Summa Zoologica, ed. and tr. Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., and Irven M. Resnick (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 1452.
www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/donkey-milk-ancient-elixir-life-experiences-modern-day-resurgence-002502
Thomas de Cantimpré, De Natura Rerum (lib. IV-XII), ed. Luis García Ballester (Granada: University of Granada, 1973–74).
Images
Cleopatra – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra#/media/File:Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1.jpg
www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/2034/oral-care-for-pre-schooler
Mummy portrait, Fayum, L’européene – commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fayum-34.jpg