The Mule That Helped Build the Parthenon and Earned a Lifetime Pension

A mule that helped build the Parthenon earned lifelong care at Athens’ expense after returning voluntarily to the construction site, according to an anecdote preserved by ancient Greek historian Plutarch. In Life of Cato the Elder, 5.3, he writes that the Athenians released their hardest-working mules to graze freely. One returned and ran beside the […]