The Indian War of Dionysos is the central theme of Nonnus' late classical epic The Dionysiaca. His account of the war is too large to quote here in full.
Pausanias, Description of Greece :
"Dionysos was, in my opinion . . . the first to invade India, and the first to bridge the river Euphrates. Zeugma (Bridge) was the name given to that part of the country where the Euphrates was bridged, and at the present day the cable is still preserved with which he spanned the river; it is plaited with branches of the vine and ivy. Both the Greeks and the Egyptians have many legends about Dionysos."
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 2. 33 :
"It is related, anyhow, that Heracles of Egypt and Dionysos after they had overrun the Indian people with their arms, constructed engines of war, and tried to take the place by assault; but the sages [Brahmans], instead of taking the field against them, lay quiet and passive, as it seemed to the enemy; but as soon as the latter approached they were driven off by rockets of fire and thunderbolts which were hurled obliquely from above and fell upon their armour."
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana :
"Now the Hellenes disagree with the Indians, and the Indians among themselves, concerning this Dionysos [the wine-God worshipped in India]. For we declare that the Theban Dionysos made an expedition to India in the role of soldier and reveller, and we base our arguments, among other things, on the offering at Delphoi, which is preserved in the treasuries there. And it is a disc of Indian silver bearing the inscription : ‘Dionysos the son of Semele and of Zeus, from the men of India to the Apollon of Delphoi.’"
The Triumph of Dionysos, depicted on a 2nd-century Roman sarcophagus. Dionysus rides on a chariot drawn by panthers- his procession includes elephants and other exotic animals.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana :
"Now the hill [in India] the summit of which is inhabited by the sages [Brahmans] is, according to the account of our travellers, of about the same height as the Akropolis of Athens; and it rises: straight up from the plain, though its natural position equally secures it from attack for the rock surrounds it on all sides. On many parts of this rock you see traces of cloven feet and outlines of beards and of faces, and here and there impressions of backs as of persons who had slipt--and rolled down. For they say that Dionysos, when he was trying to storm the place together with Heracles, ordered the Panes to attack it, thinking that they would be strong enough to take it by assault; but they were thunderstruck by the sages and fell one, one way, and another, another; and the rocks as it were took the print of the various postures in which they fell and failed."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 131:
"When Liber [Dionysos] was leading his army into India, he gave the authority over his Theban kingdom to his nurse Nysus [Seilenos] until he should come back. But after Liber returned from there, Nysus was unwilling to yield the kingdom."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 191 :
"At the time when Father Liber [Dionysos] was leading his army into India, Silenus wandered away; Midas entertained him generously, and gave him a guide to conduct him to Liber's [Dionysos'] company."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 20 ff :
"You [Dionysos] hold in thrall the Orient, even those remotest lands where Ganges waters dusky India."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 605 ff :
"[Dionysos] conqueror of India."
Seneca, Oedipus 112 ff :
"Destruction feeds, O Bacchus, on that soldiery of thine [the Theban people], thy comrades to farthest India, who dared to ride on the Eastern plains and plant thy banners on the world's first edge. The Arabs, blest with their cinnamon groves, they saw, and fleeing horsemen, the backs of the treacherous Parthians, to be feared for their flying shafts; they pierced to the shores of the ruddy sea [the Indian Ocean], whence Phoebus [Helios the sun] discloses his rising beams, opens the gates of day, and with nearer torch darkens the naked Indians."
Seneca, Oedipus 425 ff :
"Seated in thy golden chariot, thy lions with long trappings covered, all the vast coast of the Orient saw thee [Dionysos], both he who drinks of the Ganges [the Indians] and whoever breaks the ice of snowy Araxes [the Skythians]."
Seneca, Phaedra 753 ff :
"Thou, Bacchus [Dionysos], from thyrsus-bearing India, with unshorn locks, perpetually young, thou who frightenest tigers with thy vine-clad spear, and with a turban bindest thy hornèd head."
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4. 39 :
"[Alexander the Great] even roamed in the tracks of Father Liber [Dionysos] and of Hercules and conquered India."
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6. 59 :
"From the time of Father Liber's [Dionysos] to Alexandrus the Great's [conquest of India] 153 kings of India are counted in a period of 6451 years and three months."
Nonnus introduces the war in his epic, the Dionysiaca, with Zeus sending a message to Rhea, commanding Dionysos to gather armies for an Indian War. With the help of Rhea He then gathers his armies. The introductory passages are quoted here:--
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12. 394 - 13. 18 :
"After the revels over his [Dionysos'] sweet fruit [wine newly discovered by the young god], Dionysos proudly entered the cave of Kybeleid goddess Rheia [his foster mother], waving bunches of grapes in his flowerloving hand, and taught Maionia the vigil of his feast. Father Zeus sent Iris to the divine halls of Rheia, to inform wakethefray Dionysos, that he must drive out of Asia with his avenging thyrsus the proud race of Indians untaught of justice . . .
At once Rheia Allmother sent out her messenger to gather the host, Pyrrhikhos [one of the Korybantes], the dancer before her loverattle timbrel, to proclaim the warfare of Lyaios under arms. Pyrrhikhos, gathering a varied army for Dionysos, scoured all the settlements of the eternal word [recruiting a fabulous army for Dionysos' campaigns]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 1 ff :
"Then [while the armies of Dionysos were mustering around her palace in Phrygia] swiftshoe Rheia haltered the hairy necks of her lions beside their highland manger. She lifted her windfaring foot to run with the breezes, and paddled with her shoes through the airy spaces. So like a wing or a thought she traversed the firmament to south, to north, to west, to the turning-place of dawn, gathering the divine battalions for Lyaios: one all-comprehending summons was sounded for trees and for rivers, one call for Neiades and Hadryades, the troops of the forest. All the divine generations heard the summons of Kybele, and they came together from all sides. From high heaven to the Lydian land Rheia passed aloft with unerring foot, and returning lifted again the mystic torch in the night, warming the air a second time with Mygdonian [Lydian] fire. [She summoned the Kabeiroi, the Daktyloi, the Telkhines, Pholos, Kheiron, the Kyklopes, Panes, Kentauroi, Nymphai etc.]"
Megasthenes, Indica :
"Dionysos conquered India and all of Asian continent 6451 years before Alexander. 154 kings before Androcotos/Chandragupta".
EDITED FROM: Bristol Greeks
