ABSTRACT
Two very distinctive accounts from the ancient world relate how animals warn their riders of impending danger by speaking to them, and the humans appear to be not very surprised by the talking animals. According to Iliad, Book 19,395–424, the horses of Achilles spoke to him a word of warning before his entry into battle, and in Num 22:21–34 Balaam’s donkey complained of the unfair beating he received from Balaam when trying to avoid the threatening angel of the Lord (Num 22:21–34). The stories are not similar enough to declare that the biblical author used the Greek narrative for a template. However, both are unusual narratives that bear some particular similarities with each other. It would appear to me that as the biblical author crafted his or her story, the author consciously reacted against some of the underlying themes in the Homeric narrative.
