The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander

 Lucian is an accountant in a palace in ancient Greece. When he discovers that the of the king's overseers have been cheating the king out of great amounts of money, he knows he must flee or they will kill him.  In his flight he meets up with a donkey, who is really a poet that has been enchanted.  The donkey, Fronto, helps Lucian escape and together they start an epic journey to try to get Fronto restored to his human form.  On the way they meet a young prophetess of the Lady of Nature who is being hunted by the evil king. She believes that the Lady will be able to restore the donkey's true form. As they journey together they encounter many peoples and survive many harrowing adventures. 

I have long been a fan of Lloyd Alexander, but had never read this book.  It was published in the 1990's, and I don't think anyone would publish it today. It reads like something written by Tolkien or Lewis, and the plot reminded me a bit of some of the Shakespeare comedies. The writing is lyrical and I enjoyed it very much. I also liked how he mirrored the Greek mythological and epic stories, without copying them exactly.  Parts of the story suggested Odysseus and the Trojan war, but with an folkish tone instead of an epic tone. They are almost like what the original story of the Odyssey might have been before they it was embellished by professional a professional story teller. There were also hints of the story of Hercules, and of Jason. It was fun to be listening along and then realizing, "oh, that is like the story of the Minotaur" or "Oh, they are talking about the siege of Troy." It is very clever.  There was one thing that bothered me and would make me hesitate to recommend the book to a child.  All during the story the donkey is called a "jack ass" and there are a lot of jokes suggesting that Fronto is a jack ass in more than just physical form. I was raised in a home that was conservative enough that we wouldn't have been allowed to use the term "jack ass" so it was unsettling for me to hear it every few lines of the story. (288 p. 1995)