THE GOAT'S EARS OF THE EMPEROR TRAJAN

In Dalmatian folklore exist a narative that Emperor Trajan had goat ears.

I found Emperor Trajan stela in Egypt so let's see...

   

Emperor Traianus, wearing a composite Red Crown topped by ram's horns, uraei,

the Aten disk with cow's horns and flowers.

It surely looks that way! He did had goat ears.

I tampered with contrast only on the two other pictures,

first one is untouched and easily verifiable in any ancient Egyptian source.

there is an old Dalmatian saying;

"Zaklela se zemlja raju da se svake tajne znaju"

translation;
"Paradise and Earth have made a deal
that none of secrets will remain concealed"

It was a saying that was always followed by a story of Trajans goat ears.

Tale was recorded as Serbian by Andrew Lang which is probably a place where he picked a tale up but tale was all about Soyhern Slavics very well known.

Classic and Mediæval Influence

When paganism had disappeared, the Southern-Slavonic legends contained many elements from the "Greeks and Romans" and Trojan epics. There are references to the Emperors Trajan and Diocletian as well as to mythical personages. In the Balkans, Trajan is often confused with the king Midas. In the year 1433 Chevalier Bertrandon de la Broquière heard from the natives at Trajanople that this city had been built by the Emperor Trajan, who had goat’s ears. The historian Tzetzes also mentions that emperor’s goat’s ears ὠτία τράγου. In Serbian legends the Emperor Trajan seems also to be confused with Dædalus, for he is given war-wings in addition to the ears.

Coins of the day don't show goat's ears, but what emperor would have permitted that?  Still this comment from a coin collector is fun: The Emperor With Many Faces

Many of the coins of Trajan feature a marvelous heroic and realistic bust. However, when Trajan was raised to emperor the mints were faced with a quandry as they had no official portraits to copy for their engraving. Trajan complicated the issue by staying on the frontier with his troops a full year before returning to Rome. Thus, many of the early coins minted during his first consulship [COS II, 97-99 CE] bear images that were the best guesses of the celators. Often the images have a distinctive Nerva look.

The Violet Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang, [1901], at sacred-texts.com;

  THE GOAT'S EARS OF THE EMPEROR TROJAN

Once upon a time there lived an emperor whose name was Trojan, and he had ears like a goat. Every morning, when he was shaved, he asked if the man saw anything odd about him, and as each fresh barber always replied that the emperor had goat's ears, he was at once ordered to be put to death.

Now after this state of things had lasted a good while, there was hardly a barber left in the town that could shave the emperor, and it came to be the turn of the Master of the Company of Barbers to go up to the palace. But, unluckily, at the very moment that he should have set out, the master fell suddenly ill, and told one of his apprentices that he must go in his stead.

When the youth was taken to the emperor's bedroom, he was asked why he had come and not his master. The young man replied that the master was ill, and there was no one but himself who could be trusted with the honour. The emperor was satisfied with the answer, and sat down, and let a sheet of fine linen be put round him. Directly the young barber began his work, he, like the rest, remarked the goat's ears of the emperor, but when he had finished and the emperor asked his usual question as to whether the youth had noticed anything odd about him, the young man replied calmly, 'No, nothing at all.' This pleased the emperor so much that he gave him twelve ducats, and said, 'Henceforth you shall come every day to shave me.'

So when the apprentice returned home, and the master inquired how he had got on with the emperor, the young man answered, 'Oh, very well, and he says I am to shave him every day, and he has given me these twelve ducats'; but he said nothing about the goat's ears of the emperor.

From this time the apprentice went regularly up to the palace, receiving each morning twelve ducats in payment. But after a while, his secret, which he had carefully kept, burnt within him, and he longed to tell it to somebody. His master saw there was something on his mind, and asked what it was. The youth replied that he had been tormenting himself for some months, and should never feel easy until some one shared his secret.

'Well, trust me,' said the master, 'I will keep it to myself; or, if you do not like to do that, confess it to your pastor, or go into some field outside the town and dig a hole, and, after you have dug it, kneel down and whisper your secret three times into the hole. Then put back the earth and come away.'

The apprentice thought that this seemed the best plan, and that very afternoon went to a meadow outside the town, dug a deep hole, then knelt and whispered to it three times over, 'The Emperor Trojan has goat's ears.' And as he said so a great burden seemed to roll off him, and he shovelled the earth carefully back and ran lightly home.

Weeks passed away, and there sprang up in the hole an elder tree which had three stems, all as straight as poplars. Some shepherds, tending their flocks near by, noticed the tree growing there, and one of them cut down a stem to make flutes of; but, directly he began to play, the flute would do nothing but sing: 'The Emperor Trojan has goat's ears.' Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace. He instantly sent for the apprentice and said to him:

'What have you been saying about me to all my people?'

The culprit tried to defend himself by saying that he had never told anyone what he had noticed; but the emperor, instead of listening, only drew his sword from its sheath, which so frightened the poor fellow that he confessed exactly what he had done, and how he had whispered the truth three times to the earth, and how in that very place an elder tree had sprung up, and flutes had been cut from it, which would only repeat the words he had said. Then the emperor commanded his coach to be made ready, and he took the youth with him, and they drove to the spot, for he wished to see for himself whether the young man's confession was true; but when they reached the place only one stem was left. So the emperor desired his attendants to cut him a flute from the remaining stem, and, when it was ready, he ordered his chamberlain to play on it. But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute player about the court—nothing came but the words, 'The Emperor Trojan has goat's ears.' Then the emperor knew that even the earth gave up its secrets, and he granted the young man his life, but he never allowed him to be his barber any more.