Bestiality with a donkey

19th-century Persian miniature art work that depicts bestiality with a donkey

Throughout history, sexual relations between male humans and female donkeys, as well as female humans and male donkeys, have been reported. This type of relationship, which is also mentioned in ancient sources, is more common in rural areas, especially in South Asia, Middle East, Colombia and Morocco compared to other regions. There are also cases of sexual intercourse with donkeys in Africa, Central America, Central Asia and Europe. According to various sexologist studies, donkeys are one of the most preferred animals for zoophilia. People who have sexual intercourse with donkeys may face fines, imprisonment or capital punishment, depending on the country. In early modern period, individuals who engaged in such activities were tried in courts and executed. In some societies, there are beliefs about the benefits of having sex with a donkey.

There are literary works, works of art and elements of popular culture in various cultures that feature sexual intercourse with donkeys. These include depictions on gas lamps, steles and paintings, scenes from films, pornographic films, theater shows, cartoons, parts of novels and poems, jokes and folk tales. There are slang words in various languages that describe the act of having sexual intercourse with a donkey and the people who have committed sexual intercourse with donkeys. There are various religious and mythological sources containing beliefs and narratives about donkey sex. Some of the sources containing references to bestiality have been censored by the government or publishers.

Etymology

In Turkish slang, the term eşekçi is used to describe people who are in the habit of having sexual relations with donkeys. Donkeys used for sexual intercourse are called Kadifegül, Nallı Fatma, Fatmagül or Eşogelin in some regions of Turkey. In Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatnâme, the phrase eşek filan edici refers to men who have sexual intercourse with donkeys. The people of the region of Colombia where donkey sex is common are known among other Colombians as comeburras, Spanish for “donkey eaters”.

There are also languages in which references to sex with donkeys are used as insults or racial slurs. In American English, one of the stereotypes used to insult people is "donkey raping shit eater". In Spanish, the insulting expression ¡Soplapollas!, a combination of the verb soplar and the noun polla, also means “donkey fucker”. The Russian word Oslayob means “donkey fucker” and is used to insult men. In Arab countries, the expression “donkey fucker” is considered a racist slur. According to Justine Hardy's book, the term "donkey boy" is used in Pakistan and North India to denigrate and ridicule men who have sex with donkeys.

Frequency of occurrence

Estimates of the prevalence of bestiality in studies up to 2016 ranged from 5% to 8% for men and 3% to 4% for women. A meta-analysis published in 2021 estimated that about 2% of the general population engaged in zoophilic acts. Sexologists Hani Miletski, Andrea Beetz, Colin J. Williams and Martin S. Weinberg conducted a study of people who have had sexual intercourse with animals and found that animals in the equine family are the most preferred animal species for zoophilia after dogs. Another survey of 171 people in 2010 reported that donkeys were the most preferred animal species for sexual intercourse (73) after mares (80). Of the 144 cases of zoophilia found by Zeb Tortorici in archives in Guatemala, Mexico, Spain and the United States, 42.2% were with female donkeys. In a 2018 survey from Córdoba, Colombia, 68.1% of respondents reported having had sexual intercourse with an animal, mostly donkeys.

In 2002, an online survey of zoophilia was conducted among 114 participants with a median age of 27 years who had ever had sexual intercourse with an animal. Of the participants, 91% of whom were American and 83% of whom had graduated from a university or equivalent educational institution, 29% reported having had intercourse with a member of the Equidae family. Of those who continue to actively engage in bestiality, 39% said they have had sexual intercourse with a member of the Equidae. All of those who had ever had sexual intercourse with a member of the horsetail family reported having vaginal intercourse with the animal, while half of the respondents also reported having anal intercourse with the animal. In addition, 14% of those who had had sexual intercourse with a member of the Equidae family said they had had oral intercourse with the animal.

History

Ancient Roman gas lamp depicting sexual intercourse with a donkey

Antiquity

The verbal metaphors in the discovered Hittite texts, which were intended to excite the reader, emphasized that animals such as donkeys had sexual intercourse with humans. The English translation of the Hittite text written by a woman is as follows:

"Swell the donkey! Let the female ride the donkey! Let the male donkey get an erection! Let the donkey ride his baby over and over again! A bucket tied to the head of my bed! A stag tied to the foot of my bed! Get an erection by my bed! Make love to me! Get an erection at the foot of my bed! Caress me! My vagina is a whore's vagina! Her penis is a dog's penis! Like a whore's vagina takes a dog's penis (let my vagina take his penis)!"

In Hittite laws, a man's donkey was considered an acceptable sexual partner. The donkey, which was used as a symbol of sexuality in the Hittites, is also seen on the Inandık Vase and implies sexual intercourse with a donkey.

In Ancient Egypt, curses referring to donkey rape can be found from the Pharaonic period to the Coptic period. The curses are usually inscribed on stelae. In a book written during the reign of Ramesses III, it is written that those who have sexual intercourse with donkeys will be cursed. According to the book, the donkey will have sex with the wife and children of the one who has intercourse with it.On the Dedication Stele dedicated to Tefnakht, there is a “donkey curse” for those who have damaged the land granted to Neith and an appeal to the fiery breath of Sekhmet:

"Whoever disturbs them, may the wrath of Neith be upon him forever. His son will not be admitted to his office. Let the donkey rape him, let the donkey rape his wife and children. Let him burn with fiery breath in the mouth of Sekhmet and with the oath of the Lord of hosts. May the life of the one who will diminish from the land given to Neith shrink and be buried in the earth."

In ancient Egypt, there was a warning that if a woman had sexual intercourse with a donkey, great calamities would befall her, as if she were an Assyrian.

Apuleius writes that wealthy Romans had sexual intercourse with donkeys. Juvenal, in his book of Satires, mentions women who were guilty of having sexual intercourse with donkeys. In Ancient Greece, accusing someone that their mother had had sexual intercourse with a donkey was used as an accusation of zoophilia, implying that they had had intercourse with an ugly and degrading creature.In a text about the Heruli, Procopius writes that men, especially those with donkeys, copulated immorally. The allegation of having sexual intercourse with a donkey implied by Procopius, who seems to have disliked the Heruli and wanted to portray them in the most negative light possible, is most likely untrue. Pliny the Elder wrote that donkey penises soaked in oil and hyena penises covered in honey were sex fetishes of women living at the time. Aristotle of Ephesus is known to have had sexual intercourse with a female donkey. According to Wolfgang Luppe, the sexual intercourse with donkeys implicitly mentioned in Aristophanes comedies The Frogs and The Wasps are not entirely unhistorical. In a theater performance in Corinth, a woman had sexual intercourse with a donkey.

Middle Ages and Modern Age

In Ibn al-Jawzī's Adqiya, he mentions the brilliance of a physician who treated a patient with an unusually swollen penis. The physician guessed that the man had had sexual intercourse with a donkey, during which a grain of grain entered his penis. He then struck the man's penis with a hammer to get rid of the grain blocking it. Both European and Arab writers were cautious in transcribing this incident. In the 11th century book Picatrix, a decan description in the Pisces III chapter mentions a woman mounted by a donkey.

Saadi Shirazi gave the following advice to unmarried men in the 13th century:

"Find a white donkey with sharp ears, full hips, a round noses, a long tails and a round flank. Then do as the scholars say: Place three bricks under your feet and have sexual intercourse with the donkey, or if you cannot do this, tie a board to the donkey's two knees and then stand on the board with one foot and have sexual intercourse with the donkey."

According to Mehmed al-Ghazali, sexual intercourse with donkeys was a common male activity in Egypt. According to al-Ghazali, having sex with donkeys was so widespread that stories about it spread and no one denied having sex with a donkey. al-Ghazali also mentions donkey houses in the region. In the donkey houses, which one could enter for a fee, one could have sexual intercourse with female donkeys for hours.

Painting depicting a man immobilized after being caught having sexual intercourse with his donkey in Algeria

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, donkey sex was common in rural areas of Europe. In the 16th century, most Europeans thought that Muslims had sexual intercourse with animals, especially donkeys.

In the early modern era, trials of people who had sex with donkeys took place in many European countries. Although the records were often burned after the trials, more than 100 bestiality trials in France between the 13th and 17th centuries have survived. On January 8, 1558, in Villeneuve-l'Archevêque, a donkey rider who was tried for having sexual intercourse with a donkey was burned with his donkey after being executed by hanging. On November 24, 1542, in a similar case before the Parliament of Paris, a man from the commune of Loudun was burned with his donkey after being strangled to death for having sexual intercourse with it. In 1567, the Court of Aragon in Spain sentenced five men to work on a galley after they were found to have had sexual intercourse with a donkey. In 1572, nine peasants were executed for having sexual intercourse with donkeys or mules. In a news report dated September 2, 1595, it is written that a man accused of having sexual intercourse with a donkey by 2 men and 2 women in Portugal was burned to death with the donkey in Rossio Square. According to the report, immediately after the burning, the man was found to be innocent, and those who accused him of having sexual intercourse with the donkey were also burned to death. In the late 16th century, in a case of bestiality in France, it was decided that the female donkey would be stoned to death in front of the man on the gallows and then the man would be executed by hanging. In 1612, Domingos Marquez, the second black man to be burned to death in Portugal, was burned for “disgraceful behavior with a donkey in public”. From the 17th century onwards, judges began to issue more pardons for donkeys. In 1750 in France, a man and a female donkey who were found to have had sexual intercourse were brought to court and tried. While the court decided to execute the man, the donkey was found not guilty. The comments of the villagers about the donkey and the man were influential in this decision. When Frederick the Great pardoned a man caught having sex with a donkey, he said: "In Prussia, man has freedom of both his head and his tail (penis)".

A man who saw a British merchant held captive in Ottoman Algeria was petrified while having sexual intercourse with his favorite donkey. The British merchant described what he saw as follows: “In a small meadow where excellent grass grew, I saw something that resembled a man resting on the ass of his donkey. They looked so lifelike that from a distance I thought they were alive, but when I came closer I saw that they were perfect statues.” This incident was reported in the London press in 1670.

It is mentioned in the sources that some rulers had sexual intercourse with donkeys. Zhu Yousong is known to have had sexual intercourse with a donkey. Catherine the Great had a donkey that she used for sexual intercourse. According to Finucci, Caterina Sforza preferred the dried penis of a donkey for what she called a spectacular enlargement of the sexual organ.

Sexual intercourse with donkeys by region in recent times

Asia

According to linguist Gyula József Décsy's book, sexual intercourse between a human and a donkey is the main taboo in Asia related to the concept of bestiality.

West Asia

According to a 1938 medical academic paper, donkeys are the most commonly used animal for bestiality among Arabs. According to Turkish writer Cengiz Gündoğdu's book, sexual intercourse with donkeys is commonplace in Anatolia. According to anthropologist Edgar Gregersen, there is a belief among Turks that sexual intercourse with donkeys enlarges the penis. According to a 2005 Hürriyet newspaper report, 43 percent of men living in rural areas of Turkey had their first sexual intercourse with a donkey. İlhan Başgöz and religious historian Julian Baldick claim that young Tahtacı people have sexual intercourse with donkeys. According to writer Osman Şahin, it has been considered normal in villages for centuries for men to have sexual intercourse with donkeys. Cengiz Gündoğdu associates sex with donkeys with repressed and forbidden sexual life. Kamer Genç wrote in the October 23, 1968 issue of Nokta magazine, "Everyone has a donkey relationship in their past". In an interview with an Internet radio station in 2010, Haydar Dümen stated that sexual intercourse with a donkey was a rural custom and that it was said “it's time to take your boy to the donkey now” and that his first sexual intercourse was with a donkey. Bekir Yıldız states in his book that this type of relationship has decreased with the migration from villages to cities.Today in Turkey, people who found to have had sex with donkeys are fined according to Article 14/c of the Animal Protection Law.

In some plays performed in Turkey, there is a reference to sexual intercourse with a donkey or the role of a man having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In a scene in the Turkish play Hastane mi Kestane mi?, there is a reference to sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the scene set in a hospital, the patient tells the nurse that he has no health problems except that he was kicked by a donkey. The nurse then asks why the donkey kicked him. The patient replies, "Don't question why; this is a romantic relationship." In the game of değirmen döndürme, sexuality is shown in the form of sexual intercourse with a donkey. Sexual intercourse with donkeys is also seen in the game of Değirmenci played in Uruş and Yenice villages of Oğuzeli district of Gaziantep.

In Turkish culture, sexual intercourse with donkeys is sometimes a source of humor. In 1973, a four-day gala to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Atlantic Records was being organized. When Jerry Wexler fell asleep, Ahmet Ertegün replaced the photo in Wexler's passport with one of a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In Paris, the gendarmerie, seeing the photo in the passport, first looked at the photo, then at Wexler, and then at the photo again. As Ertegün collapsed with laughter, Wexler tried to help the gendarmerie by saying “I used to have a beard”. In the 36th volume of Leman magazine published in 1991, the statement “He who has sexual relations with a donkey has platonic feelings for a lynx!” appears. According to Turkish writer Faruk Kemal Ermiş's book of A'dan Z'ye çaǧdaş rüya yorumları, having sexual intercourse with a donkey in a dream points to perseverance and patience.

Turkish has expressions that include references to sexual intercourse with donkeys. There are expressions in Turkish that mean “Our national bride is donkey.” In Central Anatolia Region of Turkey, people who are clumsy and incompetent in handicrafts are called “Haven't you ever had sexual intercourse with a donkey?”. A study analyzing Tweets shared on Twitter between November 2020 and May 2021 found that donkeys, along with dogs, were the animal most frequently used to negatively portray Kurds as animals, and Kurds were frequently accused of having sexual relations with donkeys. There is a Kurdish proverb, Fêda gavana nihandina kera ye, which means "The benefit of the cattleman is to have sexual intercourse with the donkey."

In the 19th century, as homosexuality among men became widespread in Iran, soldiers were advised to follow Saadi's advice about sex with donkeys. Wilhelm Gollmann, a German doctor, states that the Iranians used to have sexual intercourse with donkeys as a remedy for coccalgia.

The allegation that a Palestinian farmer traveling with his donkey was captured by Israeli soldiers and forced to have sexual intercourse with his donkey has spread through the Palestinian community in a violent but silent outrage.

East Asia

In 1873, the monastic head of a Buddhist temple in Beijing told a Japanese pilgrim that if he entered the Holy of Holies of a mosque, he would find a statue of a woman having sex with a donkey, a Muslim idol. The walls of the Bharkor road leading to Jokhang Temple in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, considered sacred by Tibetans, have been covered with perverted paintings and announcements by the Chinese state aimed at weakening religious belief. One of these paintings depicts a cross preparing to have sex with a donkey. On the wall behind the altars in ancient Hui temples, depictions of men having sex with donkeys were often kept. In the city of Kashgar, a man having sexual intercourse with a donkey is a matter of ridicule for the man and even his family. The shame felt by the people in a village where a case of sexual intercourse with a donkey has occurred is enough to have all the female donkeys in the village sent away. The Japanese are strongly opposed to donkey sex.

Central Asia

Zoophilia is not uncommon in Central Asia among young people without access to human partners. A Tajik woman left her husband in disgust when he called her to watch him have sex with a donkey. İlhan Başgöz and religious historian Julian Baldick claim that in Shamanist societies in Central Asia, young people had sexual intercourse with donkeys.

A soldier arrested in Afghanistan for having sex with a donkey stated in his defense that he had sex with a donkey because he did not have enough money to get married. He was then released by the police. "Show me an Afghan soldier who says he has not had sexual intercourse with a donkey and I will show you a liar" was said among American soldiers in Afghanistan who mocked the practice of having sexual intercourse with donkeys. In a study analyzing the plays performed by the Ghorbati people, it was found that half of the cases of bestiality in the plays were with donkeys.

South Asia

A 19th century painting depicting a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey, India

In rural areas of India, sexual intercourse with a female donkey is observed. Children in the village often have sexual intercourse with the female donkey. According to a widespread rumor in India, having sex with a donkey cures AIDS by destroying the HIV virus. Another belief, widespread among the illiterate in India, is that sexual intercourse with a female donkey cures gonorrhea. The Badagas believe that fatal venereal diseases can only be cured by having sex with a donkey. If the donkey dies immediately after intercourse, the man is considered to be cured of the venereal disease. Many Europeans traveling by caravan in northern India have reported seeing people having sex with donkeys. According to the historian Peter Boomgaard, these cases are situational.

According to Google search results, donkey sex is also searched for in Pakistan, the country where bestiality is the most searched for on the Internet. Iqbal Masih was allegedly killed by a man he saw having sex with a donkey. The allegation, based on police reports and the testimonies of Iqbal's cousins, has been ignored by the global media because it seems implausible that the man who had sex with the donkey killed only Iqbal and not the two cousins with Iqbal. In Pakistan, a donkey that was raped by another villager after escaping from its owner was killed by the owner after being declared a kari (“adulterous female”), The News International reported.

Europe

Some Russian officers serving in the 1828-1829 Ottoman-Russian War in Wallachia shunned women for fear of contracting sexual diseases, often preferring to have intercourse with female donkeys who showed signs of sexual pleasure. In 1843, a man found to have had sexual intercourse with a donkey in England was exiled to Australia. French anthropologist Marie-Christine Anest reports that until the 1980s in Crete and Cyprus, males aged between 6 and 17 had sexual intercourse with female donkeys. Among the South Slavs, donkeys were one of the main animals used for sexual intercourse.

Two girls and a donkey, Achille Devéria

The Turkish worker who had sexual intercourse with Margörit, the donkey of the zoo in Basel, Switzerland, asked for his acquittal in the hearing held at the Zurich Court, stating that in their traditions and customs, every man has sexual intercourse with the donkey. The judge acquitted the defendant who had intercourse with the donkey in accordance with Turkish customs. This event was a hot topic in Swiss newspapers for days. Some Turks accused the judge of being Turkophobic because of this decision. In 2019, Swiss police shared a video of a man having sex with a donkey as part of an anti-zoophilia campaign. The video, which is fictionalized, was harshly criticized by critics.

In British culture, donkey sex is a light topic and is used to shame and ridicule those allegedly involved. There is a significant amount of humorous content on Twitter about bestiality. References to zoophilia with animals other than donkeys are not considered humorous.

One of the Romani jokes known in Andalusia contains a reference to sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the joke, one day when the Romani sells donkeys in the Baza town, one of the donkeys gets an erection. The Guardia, who wants to trick the Romani, says that he will fine the Romani if he does not get rid of the donkey's erection. The Romani protests, saying he has no control over the donkey, but the Guardia stands firm. When the Guardia walks away, the Romani bites hard on the donkey's ear, hurting the donkey and causing donkey to lose erection. When Guardia returns, he is surprised and asks the Romani how he did it. The Romani tells him that he told the donkey “If you don't lower it, the Guardia will suck the thing”. According to Brandes, it is intended to emphasize the intelligence, large penises, and sexual power of the Romani people with this joke.

In Dagestan, one of the nationalist discourses used in everyday conversations defines Caucasian men as “ass-fuckers”.

Africa

North Africa

There is a widespread belief among Moroccan Muslims that anal and vaginal intercourse with donkeys makes the penis grow. This is why Moroccan Muslim fathers encourage their sons to have sex with donkeys.

An anonymous researcher conducting anthropological fieldwork in rural Algeria saw a young man nervously having sexual intercourse with a donkey the day before his wedding. The young man's aim was clearly to avoid appearing desperate and incompetent to his wife on their wedding night. Kabyle people do not keep donkeys or eat donkey meat, probably because of their sexual intercourse with donkeys in the distant past. Vicotr Jiřík reported in his 1913 book K pyramidám that he saw a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey in Alexandria.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Masai youth often have sexual intercourse with female donkeys. They believe that having sex with a donkey improves their lovemaking skills. In contrast, in Masai society, where having sex with a donkey is considered childish, having sex with a donkey would violate the honor and pride of an adult Masai. Iraqw people are reported to have sexual intercourse with donkeys. According to the Hausa villagers, if a man has become rich, he has either had sexual intercourse with a donkey or with another man. Donkey sex is also practiced among the Mossi people. Young Mossi people who cannot have intercourse with women because they have not yet been circumcised have sexual intercourse with donkeys. In Mossi culture, men who continue to have sex with donkeys after youth are believed to be cursed.

As of 2018, Ethiopia, home to the world's largest donkey population with more than 8.5 million donkeys, has also seen cases of donkey sex. Ethiopia is the country with the highest number of Google searches for donkey sex videos in relation to population.

America

North America

Devereux states that the Mohave and Quechan people only had sexual intercourse with mares, donkeys, cows, calves and women. Hopis have also been found to have sexual intercourse with donkeys. In Pueblo Indians, some religious ceremonies could not begin until everyone laughed, so the jesters would have sexual intercourse with the donkey before the ceremony to make everyone laugh and relieve tension.

According to one rumor, originating in the 1960s and put forward by opponents of sex education in the US, young people were taught about sex with donkeys in sex education classes. In Jack Hanna's book Jungle Jack, an attorney for the Columbus Zoo testified that a mother mounted and humped by a donkey in front of her children as she bent down to tie her shoes at the zoo. Afterward, the woman told zoo officials over the phone that she was going to sue, but later backed down when she thought the incident would become more widely known.

Central America and Mexico

An advertisement for a donkey show in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. In these shows, prostitutes allegedly have intercourse with donkeys.

In Panama there were nightclubs where women had sex with donkeys. At donkey shows in Tijuana, Mexico, prostitutes are said to publicly engage in sexual intercourse with donkeys. However, there is very little documentation of this. According to the 1981 book New West, taxi drivers offered to take tourists arriving in Tijuana to the red light district where they could watch donkey performances. Donkey shows were on the list of reasons to visit Tijuana in 2008. In contrast, Gustavo Arellano claims that donkey shows are not real. In Juarez, another city where public cases of donkey sex are alleged to have occurred, donkey shows are allegedly held in disposable buildings made of papier-mâché. Many Mexicans expressed their willingness to have sex with a donkey after drinking too much pulqueden. In the north of Costa Rica, it is considered normal to have sex with a donkey. In Honduras, there have been reports of young people having intercourse with a female donkey.

South America

Donkey sex is common on the Atlantic coast of Colombia. Colombian men who have sex with donkeys before marriage continue to have sex with donkeys after marriage. According to a widespread belief among young people in Colombia, a man who has intercourse with a donkey grows a longer penis, ready for sexual intercourse with a woman.

In a survey from Córdoba, Colombia, 68.1% of respondents said they had had sex with an animal, mostly donkeys. Of those who had ever had sex with an animal, 87.6% said the experience felt very good the first time. 65.1% of respondents said they had friends or relatives with them when they were with an animal. 37.5% of the same group said they would like their children to have sex with an animal. In addition, a tribe in the highlands of Cartagena has a tradition of sexual intercourse with donkeys. Children in Colombia are reported to have had their first sexual intercourse with a donkey at the age of 7 or 8.

Small donkeys are one of the animals used for sexual intercourse in Northwest Brazil. A priest caused a scandal in a Brazilian village when he preached a sermon on the evils of having sex with donkeys and chickens.

Depictions

A drawing from the Gamiani book

Depictions of sexual intercourse with donkeys are found on cave, clay, vase and kerosene lamp materials. The cave painting in the Val Camonica rock paintings, estimated to date to the 8th millennium BC, depicts a man having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In an engraving on brown clay found in Egypt and dated between 900 BC and 586 BC, an animal, thought to be a donkey, has sexual intercourse with a woman. In one of the ancient Egyptian amulets, in which the presence of Set in depiction is intended to announce the threatening side of the god, the depiction shows a squatting woman above a donkey with an erect penis, who is penetrating the woman. A 26 cm long artifact, a mixture of vase and statuette found in Ravanusa, dating to 510-500 BC, depicts a half-human, half-goat-like satyr having sexual intercourse with a donkey. A Roman flask dated to the 2nd or 3rd century AD from the city of Bakchias depicts a woman and a donkey with an erect penis preparing to have sexual intercourse with her. In 1780, Abbé Giffon discovered a Roman bas-relief depicting a donkey having sexual intercourse with a woman in the Apt commune of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. A painting from the Hellenistic period shows a man secretly having sexual intercourse with a donkey. Athenian Band Cup by the Oakeshott Painter (MET 17.230.5) depicts a siren preparing to sodomize a male donkey. In a kantharos painted by Epictetus, a donkey with an erect penis is seen next to a almost naked maenad. According to Franco, the woman appears as if she is inviting the excited donkey to sex with her. A gas lamp from Ancient Greece, dating from 150 to 250 AD, depicts a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey. Two Cyprus-made gas lamps on display in the British Museum depict a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey or horse. One of the Homeric vases depicting millers working in a flour mill includes a scene of theft and an attempt to sexually stimulate a donkey.

Some of the sculptures in India depicting sexual intercourse in which the man takes the active role depict an aristocratic-looking man having intercourse with a donkey. In depictions where the animal takes the active role, the woman is often depicted having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In a temple in Vijayanagara, a menstruating woman is depicted having sexual intercourse with a donkey or horse. There are gardabha stones in various parts of India. These stones depict women having sexual intercourse with donkeys. The stone depicting Ganesha, found in a place of worship in Erandwane, India, depicts a man being punished with a donkey for forcing a woman in his family to have sexual intercourse with a donkey. The duration of the man's punishment with a donkey is indicated by the sun and moon symbols carved on the stone. A 12th century AD stone slab found in the village of Daranagar and exhibited in the Allahabad Museum depicts a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey. A mid-13th century inscription describing an engraved image depicting a woman having sexual intercourse with a donkey found in Jhansi and Vidisha in Central India states that “the father of the transgressor turned into a donkey”. A pillar in India depicts a donkey-like animal in a relationship with a woman. The woman in the depiction was bent over with the help of a pot.

¿De qué mal morirá?, 1799, one of Goya's paintings referring to sexual relations with donkeys

Francisco Goya painted many paintings of big-eared donkeys dressed as school teachers. These paintings were a reference to sexual relations between humans and animals. An 18th century engraving from Europe shows a nun having sexual intercourse with a donkey while other nuns watch in amusement.

Health effects

People who have sexual intercourse with donkeys can develop various diseases. A 2008 study found that a 20-year-old shepherd who had sexual intercourse with a donkey developed Hodgkin's disease as a result of the relationship. Trichophyton bullosum, a fungal skin disease in donkeys, can also be transmitted to humans through contact. Previously seen in humans in Africa and the Middle East, the disease was first seen in Europe in 2012. In the case detected in rural areas of France, the disease is thought to have been transmitted from donkey to human. In Morocco in 2017, 15 young people who had sex with donkeys were reported to have rabies.

Sexual intercourse with donkeys can also cause physical harm. A farmer who had intercourse with a medium-sized farm animal, presumed to be a donkey, had wounds around the anus, a tear at the inflection point of the rectum and pale skin. A computed tomography scan showed injury to the proximal rectum, 7 to 10 centimeters from the opening of the rectum. A man in Kenya who had sex with a donkey developed penial complications. Donkey kicks during sexual intercourse can injure or kill a person. In August 2014, a Saudi man who tried to have sexual intercourse with a donkey died after the donkey kicked him in the head and chest.

Literature

Painting titled Bringing Back the Lost Feeling, published in the 1927 issue of the satirical German magazine Kladderadatsch

Sexual intercourse with a donkey is mentioned in Aesop's Fables. While waiting to be executed in Delphi, Aesop tells tales and fables to the Delphites about themselves. Aesop's friend visits him in prison and asks, “Why does it seem good to you to insult them (the Delphites) while they are in captivity in their own country? Have you preached to the people and become a fool?” and scolds Aesop. Aesop responds with a fable about a foolish girl and the woman who prays for her daughter:

"One day, while walking down the road, the girl encounters a man violently raping a donkey and asks him what he is doing. The man replies, “I am giving him advice” (νοῦν ἐντίθημι αὐτῇ). The girl persuades him after saying “give me some advice too”. Then, as if triumphant, the girl turns to her mother and says “I have wisdom”. The mother, after listening to the whole story, laments, “Oh child, you have lost even the wisdom you had."

Aesop expresses that the same thing happened in his own case and that when he came to Delphi he lost even the wisdom he had. In the analogical relationship between Aesop's own situation and the fable, the girl's mother is Aesop's friend, the girl is Aesop and the Delphites are the man who rapes the donkey. In two fables in Esopete ystoriado, there are passages that directly and indirectly emphasize that men want to have sexual intercourse with donkeys.

In Apuleius' fable of The Golden Ass, it is considered symbolically appropriate that the woman who, out of anger, jealousy, and greed, plans to kill her husband, daughter and two others by poisoning them, is executed by having sex with a donkey.

Sexual intercourse with donkeys also occurs in folk tales. In a story from the oral folk literature of the Western Toba region of India, a man has intercourse with a female donkey. One of the four different figures in Arab folktales believed to have been created by the sexual intercourse of humans and animals is the “Son of the Donkey”, who is believed to have been born from the mating of a donkey and a woman. In an Omani folktale, after the witch kills her older daughter, she prepares her younger daughter to have sexual intercourse with the demon in the form of a donkey. During the preparation, the mother witch removes her daughter's clothes and encourages her to remain silent while the donkey rapes her daughter. If the daughter utters the name of God or says, “In the name of God I am free from Satan,” while having sex with the donkey, the donkey will disappear. However, if the girl's mother or father asks the donkey to return, the donkey comes back and continues to have sexual intercourse with the girl. The sexual intercourse continues until the donkey has an orgasm. When the donkey orgasms, the girl turns into a witch. In a humorous folk tale known in Somalia, a 6-year-old boy discovers his mother having sexual intercourse with a house guest. When he went to tell his father what he had seen, he saw his father having sexual intercourse with a female donkey. He then decides not to disturb his father and returns home. A folktale in the literary tradition of Buddhists in Sri Lanka has a story in which a king and a female donkey are likely to have had sexual intercourse. In one of the stories about the origins of the Haadiiwo caste in southern Ethiopia, Bushshee's servant had sexual intercourse with a female donkey, who became pregnant and gave birth to a human being named Hade, the ancestor of all Haadiiwo. In one tale from the Śukasaptati, an ancient collection of Indian stories, a woman vows to kiss an idol of Ganesha if she achieves a particular goal. When she fulfills her promise, the idol mischievously grabs hold of her lips and refuses to let go. Her husband has to make the idol laugh by simulating sex with a donkey to rescue his wife.

The Indian state of Maharashtra is one of the historical sites of donkey curses inscribed on stelae. An ancient Sanskrit curse found at Dabhol in Ratnagiri, written in Sanskrit, means “let the donkey have intercourse with the sinner and the sinner's mother”. The Akshi Saka stele dating to 1012 AD (disputed), the Saka stele dating to 1081 or 1082 AD and the Sintra stele dating to 1137 AD are some of the stelae with donkey curses. There is a continuity in the production of these stelae until 1300 AD. The Alu Naka stele dated 1396 AD, the stele of Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah dated 1398 AD, the stele of Deva Raya II dated 1426 AD, the stele of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah dated 1590 AD and the stele dated 1652 AD are some of the stelae found in Maharashtra containing donkey curses.

Kantohoros painted by Epiktetos.

Sexual intercourse with donkeys is mentioned in the story of concubines in Rumi's Masnavi. In the work, one of the master's concubines has sexual intercourse with the donkey in the house. The master's wife sees the concubine having intercourse with the donkey. The master's wife also wants to have sexual intercourse with the donkey and takes the donkey to the stable. After the master's wife lies under the donkey, the donkey inserts his penis into her vagina. The donkey's penis ruptures her lung and she dies there. In the story, the master's concubine was unharmed because she tied a gourd to the donkey's penis. According to Turkish writer Şefik Can, this story is taken from the book The Golden Ass by the Latin poet Apuleius. In addition to Rumi, in Persian literature between the 10th and 15th centuries, poets such as Sanai, Masud Saʿd Salman, Anvari, Shamsi ʾl-Aʿraj, Qamar and ʿAmʿaq also wrote satirical poems containing references to sexual relations with donkeys.

In chapter 11 of the 15th-century sex book The Perfumed Garden, a woman has sexual intercourse with a donkey. This chapter is not included in the new editions of the book. In the book Dafi al-gumûm wa Rafi al-humûm, an Arab is quoted as saying that having sexual intercourse with donkeys is better than gambling, and a Turk is quoted as saying that if I have sexual intercourse with donkeys, those who enjoy it should give one or two pieces of gold. In Arabic erotic manuscripts dating from the late Middle Ages, there are passages about women having intercourse with donkeys. In one anecdote, a porter discovers this tendency in his wife.

Sexual intercourse with donkeys also appears in Nasreddin jokes written in the 16th century. It is thought that at least one fifth of the Nasreddin Hodja jokes written in this period contain obscene content. In one of these jokes, Nasreddin Hodja is caught having sexual intercourse with a donkey in the mosque. In another anecdote, Nasreddin Hodja shows his donkey to someone and asks him “how can I have intercourse with this weak, poor creature”. The man advises him to apply yogurt on his penis and to enter and exit the donkey's vulva. The hodja does as the man says and by chance ejaculates. In another joke, Nasreddin Hodja is caught by the donkey's owner while having sexual intercourse with someone's donkey. When the owner says “what do you think you are doing?”, he tells him that what he is doing will not harm the donkey and advises him to protect the donkey from wolves. In another joke, Nasreddin Hodja sunbathes naked after having sexual intercourse with his donkey, and when someone scolds him, he replies, “Should I cover my wet penis so that it gets moldy?”.

Many plays and poems written in the Early modern era feature sexual relations with donkeys. One of the last two plays by Tang Xianzu is the story of Lu Sheng's sexual desire for a female donkey. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the donkey-bodied character Nick Bottom has sexual intercourse with Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Jafar Zatalli's satirical poems include references to sexual relations with donkeys. In the satirical poem The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc is depicted as an illiterate, illegitimate stable girl who rides a flying donkey and is in constant danger of being sexually assaulted by it. At the end of the poem, the possessed donkey tries to persuade Joan of Arc to have sexual intercourse. After the donkey comes to his senses, he explains to Joan of Arc that he is possessed and apologizes.Written by Voltaire to undermine the view of Joan of Arc as a heroine, it was banned throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A description from the poem The Maid of Orleans

There are two different Hungarian legends about Maria Theresia's sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the first legend, Queen Maria is insatiable and has sexual intercourse with a male donkey. Then the courtiers, in order to drive the queen crazy with pleasure, put the queen into a wooden horse, cover the wooden horse with a horsehide, and the male donkey has sexual intercourse with the queen in a horse costume. In the second legend, Maria Theresia has sexual intercourse with a male donkey because she is not satisfied with the sexual performance of any of the soldiers. Satisfied with her intercourse with the male donkey, Maria Thereasia tells her men, “I want the gray-coated one again!”

In the 20th century, many books of poetry and novels were published containing references to sexual intercourse with donkeys. E. E. Cummings' erotic poems, in which “the donkey stares into Muhammad's eyes”, refer to Arab cases of bestiality, suggesting that the Qur'an should be ignored. In Le Diable au corps, one of the female characters has sexual intercourse with a donkey. Gerard Reve became famous after the work in which God, depicted as a mouse-gray donkey, makes love to a visitor to God's house. Reve was put on trial for blasphemy in 1966. In April 1968, the Court of Cassation acquitted Reve as a result of the trial known as the “Donkey Trial”. In 2013, blasphemy was decriminalized in the Netherlands. Linda Hogan and Joy Harjo have written erotic poems about horsemen. In the story “My Best Soldier” in Ocean of Words book, a soldier caught having sex with a prostitute is told by his commander to either self-criticize or quit the army. The soldier chooses to do the former in order not to lose his honor. The disciplined soldier does not have sex with the prostitute for months. One day the commander catches the soldier having sexual intercourse with a mule. In Jaime Manrique's 1982 novel Latin Moon in Manhattan, a character named Sammy is taken by his uncle to a donkey for his first sexual intercourse. While his uncle has sexual intercourse with the donkey, Sammy gets excited by focusing on his uncle's large penis and realizes that he is in fact gay. Turkish writer Orhan Kemal's novel Cemile tells the story of a group of people in Adana who see themselves as urbanites and humiliate the field workers who come to the brothel by deeming Nallı Fatma sufficient. In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the character Petronio says, "Corrupt Christians who do business with female donkeys", a reference to sexual intercourse with donkeys. Selim, the main character of the Yusuf Atılgan's novel Canistan, has sexual intercourse with Tokuç Ali, the son of the agha. Selim is offended by Tokuç Ali's sexual intercourse with the donkey on the farm before him and leaves Tokuç Ali's farm because he feels that he is considered worthless. Selim, who does not forget what was done to him until his death, raids Tokuç Ali's house with his gang to take revenge years later. The relationship between the male and the female donkey is depicted in Sevgi Soysal's book Yürümek. The book was banned in Turkey in 1973 on the grounds that it violated the crime of “obscene publications”, and the author was arrested but later acquitted. There is also an article about sexual intercourse with donkeys in Atıf Yılmaz's novel Söylemek Güzeldir. In Dario Fo's play Lucio and the Donkey, a man trying to increase his sexual potency drinks the wrong potion and ends up transformed into a donkey, who will be constantly sexually aroused. After the donkey is sold to the circus, he is rented to an aristocratic woman for sexual purposes. Later he works as a sex worker with a slave woman in the circus. He eventually finds the antidote to his metamorphosis and changes back to his human form. He then seeks out the woman he had sexual intercourse as a donkey, but she rejects him.

In the fairy tale Naughty Boy by Turkish writer Mehmet Tuğrul, a boy threatens his father by slandering him for having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the story Kerdız in Turkish writer Muharrem Erbey's book Kayıp Şecere, a young man named Faruk loses his sanity after his father catches him trying to have sexual intercourse with the donkey he stole. In Turkish writer Erhan Bener's novel Böcek, the character Recai is caught by his uncle while trying to have intercourse with a donkey with two friends and is severely beaten.

In the 21st century, literary works containing references to sexual intercourse with donkeys have also been written. The character Madoobe in Nuruddin Farah's novel Secrets had a habit of having sexual intercourse with cows, chickens and ostriches. When Madoobe tried to have sex with a female donkey, he was kicked to death. He was later found naked, lying on his back with his penis partially erect. In the Moroccan story Liefde onder de olijfboom in Hafid Bouazza's novel De voeten van Abdullah, three young men who set out for their village with the dream of relieving their sexual urges by having sex with a donkey fall asleep under an olive tree, dreaming of the pleasure they would feel if the donkey were female. In the book Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, a character named Chen Guangdi is accused of having sex with a donkey and impregnating it. A girl named Leoni, one of the characters in Graham Hancock's Entagled, angry with her mother, draws a cartoon in her sketchbook with a magic marker of her mother being mounted by a donkey.

In his column in the December 9, 2004 issue of Milliyet newspaper, Çetin Altan described how to have sexual intercourse with a donkey. In his description, he writes that first the donkey is climbed on a brick, then a weight is tied to the donkey's tail, the weight is thrown on the donkey's back, a mirror is used to check whether anyone is coming or going, and since the donkey cannot be kissed during orgasm, the apple is bitten.

Religion and mythology

In Greek mythology, the onocentaur, a character with a human upper body and a donkey lower body, is believed to have been born from the union of man and donkey.

It is written that Balaam had sexual intercourse with his donkey. The Talmud also states that Jesus slept with a donkey on the way to Jerusalem. This statement derogatorily implies that Jesus had sexual intercourse with a donkey. An anecdote about a man having sex with a donkey was used by Zoroastrians in the 9th century to make a complex point about the problem of evil in Islam and Christianity: “A man is seen having sex with a donkey. Those who see him ask why he is doing such an abominable thing. The man replies, 'because it is my donkey'.” This anecdote was used to mock the view that God, as the absolute ruler of the universe, cannot be accused of harming/punishing the creatures of the universe.

The Matsya Purana enjoins that anyone who has sexual intercourse with a donkey should have his head completely shaved. References to sexual intercourse with the female donkey appear in Parashara's writings. According to the Parasara Dharma Sastra, a person in union with a female animal, including a female donkey, must perform the Prajapatya ritual.

Here is a saying of Muhammad, as recorded in the hadith collections of Abu Dawud, Al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa'i:

"A man caught having sexual intercourse with a female donkey must be killed along with the donkey."

According to Ruhollah Khomeini's decree, if a Muslim man decides to sell a donkey with which he has had sexual intercourse, he is forbidden to sell it in his home country. According to the book Radd al-Mukhtar, if a woman inserts the penis of a donkey or a severed penis into her body during Hajj, her Hajj is invalid according to the universal consensus.

Popular culture

Nude female with donkey, painting of Martin Van Maele

In the cartoon Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure, two men have sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the 1959 Turkish film Tütün Zamanı, based on the novel of the same name, in the scene where Bekir takes the photograph of Zeliş, the woman he is in love with, and goes to the barn with his donkey, the director hints at a zoophilic relationship, but there is no such scene in the novel. In the 1970s, it became common for women to have sexual intercourse with donkeys and similar animals in pornographic films. In the same period, it became relatively more acceptable to include jokes about sex with donkeys in humorous films, dramas and magazines. Animal Lover, a porn movie starring Bodil Joensen, was released in New York in 1973. Playing for 1 year in mini theaters, Animal Lover was the first feature-length film about bestiality and featured Joensen having sex with a dog, a donkey and a pig. In the movie Padre Padrone, Sardinians have their first sexual experiences with farm animals. In the movie, the shepherd is seen having sexual intercourse with his donkey, sheep and chickens. In the movie Quando l'amore è oscenità, there is a scene of a prostitute having sexual intercourse with a donkey. In the movie, a farmer hires a prostitute to have sex with his donkey. In the 1986 Turkish film Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?, Kerim and his friends try to have sexual intercourse with a donkey before raping the female character Fatmagül. Stanley Beckford's Donkey Man, released in 1993, is a humorous song about a man caught having sex with a donkey. In the opening scene of the 1998 Italian film Toto Who Lived Twice, the audience, after watching a scene in the theater about a man having sexual intercourse with a donkey, engages in synchronized masturbation in the cinema's toilet after the scene ends. In the pornography film Border Trash, Alaura Eden refuses a policeman's offer of sex, saying that she would rather have sex with a donkey than with him. The scene in the 'Donkey Ass' video, in which a half-naked and panicked man in a field is first chased and then mounted by a donkey with sexual intentions, has become popular on the internet.

The closing credits of The Heartbreak Kid show a female character having sex with a donkey. The 2007 short documentary Asses of the Caribbean is about men who have sex with donkeys on a daily basis because ultra-religious women do not want to have sex before marriage. In the canceled Kazakh dark comedy My Brother, Borat, the director shoot a scene in which the character Bilo is raped by a donkey. Donkey Love, a documentary film about Colombian men's relationship with donkeys, was released in 2012. In the second episode of the Colombian special series of the car program The Grand Tour, a scene of sexual intercourse with a donkey is seen. A lawsuit was filed against 7 people claiming that a scene in the Turkish cartoon Maysa and Bulut depicts “sexual abuse of a donkey”.