When Dionysus led his host against the men of
Ind (surely there is nothing to prevent my telling
you a tale of Bacchus !), he was held at first in such
contempt, they say, by the people there, that they
laughed at his advance ; more than that, they pitied
him for his hardihood, because he was certain to be
trampled under foot in an instant by the elephants
if he deployed against them. No doubt they heard
curious reports about his army from their scouts:
“His rank and file are crack-brained, crazy women,
wreathed with ivy, dressed in fawn-skins, carrying
little headless spears which are of ivy too, and light
targes that boom if you do but touch them”—for
they supposed, no doubt, that the tambours were
shields. ‘A few young clodhoppers are with them,
dancing the can-can without any clothes on; they
have tails, and have horns like those which start
from the foreheads of new-born kids.

 


As for the
general himself, he rides on a car behind a team of
panthers; he is quite beardless, without even the
least bit of down on his cheek, has horns, wears
a garland of grape clusters, ties up his hair with

 

a ribbon, and is in a purple gown and gilt slippers.
He has two lieutenants. One Silenus is a short, thick-set
old man with a big belly, a flat nose and large,
up-standing ears, who is a bit shaky and walks with
a staff (though for the most part he rides on an ass),
and is also in a woman’s gown, which is yellow; he
is a very appropriate aide to such a chief! The
other Pan is a misbegotten fellow like a goat in the
underpinning, with hairy legs, horns, and a long
beard; he is choleric and hot-headed, carries a
shepherd’s pipe in his left hand and brandishes a
crooked stick in his right, and goes bounding all
about the army. The women are afraid of him; they
toss their hair in the wind when he comes near and
cry out ‘Evoe.’ This we suppose to be the name of
their ruler. The flocks have already been harried -
by the women, and the animals torn limb from
limb while still alive; for they are eaters of raw
meat.”