 The Greek fable tells of an ass that is carrying a religious image and takes the homage of the crowd as being paid to him personally.When pride makes it refuse to go further, the driver beats it and declares that the world has not yet become so backward that men bow down to asses.The Latin title of the fable, "Asinus portans mysteria" (or its Greek equivalent, ονος αγων μυστήρια), was used proverbially of such human conceit and was recorded as such in the "Adagia" of Erasmus.