Now Bacchos made ready his army against the hostile troops of Indians. Nor did swarthy Celaineus fail to see the womanish warriors. He leapt up with all speed and called to arms the whole Indian host ; while bold Astraios with ever-growing martial […] took his stand beside the murmuring waves of the Astacid lake, and awaited the attack of Dionysos the vinegod,
When the captains of the two armies of the two had mustered their troops in two opposing […] the swarthy Indians advanced to battle with loud cries: like Thracian cranes, when they fly from the scourge of winter and floods of stormy rain to throw their great flocks against the heads of pygmies round the waters of Tethys, and when with sharp beaks they have destroyed that weak helpless race, they wing their way like a cloud over the […] of the Ocean.
On the other side, the fighting host madly rushed at the call, the unbending servants of warstirring Dionysos. The battalions of Bassarids also moved like a flood. As they gathered, one twined a rope of snakes about her head, one knotted her hair with scented ivy ; another madly caught up her bronze-headed thyrsus, another let down loose tresses of hair over her neck, a Mainalid unveiled, while the wind blew the unbound locks over her shoulders; another clapped the pair of brazen cymbals, and shook the ringlets upon her head ; another driven by the impulse of madness, beat the heavy-booming drum-skin with her hands, and sounded a loud echo of the battle-din. Then thyrsus did for spear, and hidden under vineleaves was the metal head of the shaft. Another yearning for bloody battle, bound round her neck a rope of raw-fed serpents. One again covered her chest with the spotted skin of a panther, another put on like a […] the dappled skins of mountain fawn, and wrapt herself round with the gay dress Another held the cub of which had covered a deer. it a milky human breast a shaggy lioness, and gave in exchange. There was who coiled a serpent thrice round under her breast unharmed, a girdle next the skin, while it gaped at her thigh so close, hissing gently, and sleepless gazed at the maiden secrets of the girl who was sleeping off her wine, Another went barefoot over the hills, treading on brambles and sharp bristling thorns, and standing firm on a prickly pear. One attacked a longlegged camel, and sheared through its curving neck with a sweep of her thyrsus : then half to be seen, went stumbling over the path with blind feet the headless body of the camel staggering about in winding ways, until hoof sank into a slippery hole and the creature rolled over helpless on its back in the dust. Another tamed her step to a stretch of pasture in the forest,
caught hold of the fell of a maddened bull, then the bull’s neck with savage nails tore off the impenetrable skin, while another tore away all his bowels. You might have seen a girl unveiled, unshod, leaping about on the jagged rocks above a precipice ; no fear had she of the sheer fall, no sharp point of stone scratched the girl’s naked foot.
At At At the mouth of the Astacid lake many a son of India was cut up by the steel of the Curetes. The warriors surrounded the battalions of the foe with blow for blow, and imitated the rhythms of the armour-dance in the wheeling movements of their feet. Leneus broke off a crested peak from a mountain, and lifting this in his hairy hand, he cast the jagged mass among the enemy : the Bacchant yelled in triumph, the Bassarid cast her vine-wreathed point, the heads of many men in that blackskin crowd were brought down by the womanish thyrsus. Eupetale was ready, and pierced a bold man with her deadly shaft, then let fly her pointed ivy covered with vineleaves to smash the steel. Stesichore with her bunches of grapes skipt into the mellay, and shooed off a tribe of enemies with manbreaking bull-roarer, waving a brazen pair of loud-clashing cymbals. There was hard fighting on both sides. There was the sound of the syrinx—the syrinx awaking the battle. There was […] of pipes—the shepherd’s pipes calling to war ! There were the Bassarids’
[…][…][…]lings : and as the turmoil arose, the black air bellowed with thunderclaps from Zeus, presaging victory for Bromios to come. A great swarm fell ; all the thirsty earth was reddened with running blood, and the mouth of the Astacid lake was a bubbling bloodbath mingled with Indian gore.
But the god pitied his foes in his heart of merry cheer, and he poured the treasure of wine into the waters. So he changed the snowy-white waters to yellow, and the river swept along bubbling streams of honey intoxicating the waters. When this change […] upon the watery, the breezes blew perfumed by the newly-poured wine, the banks were empurpled. A noble Indian drank, and spoke his wonder in […] : Here is a strange and incredible drink I have seen ! This is not the white milk of goats, not dark like water, nor […] like what I have seen in the riddled hives, what the buzzing bee brings forth with sweet wax. No—this delights the mind with a fragrant scent. A man is thirsty in the steam of this sultry heat—but if he scoops up a few drops of running water in his palms, he shakes off at once the whirlwind of parching thirst! Honey surfeits you sooner—O here’s a great miracle! When I drink this I want to drink more! For this has both merits—it is sweet, and it does not surfeit. Hebe, come this way ! Take up your pitcher, and bring your Trojan who serves with cups the divine company ; let Ganymedes draw honeyed drops from this river and fill all the mixing-bowls of Zeus! This way, friends, have a taste of a honey-distilling river!
Here I see an image of the heavens; for that nectar of Olympos which they say is the drink of Zeus, […] are pouring out in natural streams
Cite This Text