The Greek essayist Plutarch, almost a generation before Tacitus, makes a similar reference, though in his case without the least hostile or satiric intention. The ass is according to him the animal most honored among the Jews (τὸ τιμώμενον ὑπ αὐτῶν μάλιστα θηρίον), a statement which, it may be said incidentally, is by no means without foundation.[178] It is generally assumed that the use of an ass as an object of adoration necessarily aroused derision. That would probably be true of our own times in Europe or in America, but it would not obtain in the ancient world. Veneration of an ass was no more extraordinary to a Greek than veneration of any other animal symbol. Nor was the ass associated in men’s minds only with contemptuous and derisive images. He played a large part in the economy of the people, and was in many places correspondingly esteemed. The very first reference to him in Greek literature is in the Iliad (xi. 558), where Ajax’s slow retreat is compared to the stubborn and effectual resistance of an ass in the fields—surely no dishonoring simile. The ass was a part of the sacred train of Dionysus,[179] long before the latter was identified with the Phrygian Sabazios. Again, the ass was transferred to heaven, where he still shines as a constellation. At Lampsacus and Tarentum he was a sacrificial animal.[180] At Rome he was associated with Vesta, and crowned at the Consualia. Among the Jews, as among all the people of that portion of Asia, his importance is such as to justify in a large measure the words of Plutarch. Generally in the Bible he is preferred to the horse (Prov. xxvi. 3; Psalm xxxii. 9). In the ancient song of Deborah (Judges v. 10) those who sit on white asses are the princes of the people. The Anointed of God would ride into the city upon an ass. It is not without meaning that asses, but not horses, appear on Assyrian sculpture. In Egypt, however, the ass was a symbol of evil. He was associated with the demoniac Typhon, and was an object of superstitious fear and hatred.[181] For most of the Mediterranean nations the worship of an ass was only in so far contemptible as the worship of any animal was so considered. Romans and Greeks take very lofty ground indeed when they speak of Egyptian theriolatry, although innumerable religious practices of their own were associated in some way or other with animals.[182] It is not likely accordingly that the allegation of this form of fetichism against the Jews arose among Greeks or Romans or Syrians or Palestinians. For Egyptians, on the contrary, this particular story would charge the Jews with “devil-worship,” or, at least, the veneration of a deity hostile to them. In Egypt, and in Egypt alone, the story would have a special point. It may further be noted that in Manetho’s account the Jews are brought to Avaris, a site consecrated to Typhon.