Γεωγραφικα 15.1.7

15.1.7

καὶ τὰ περὶ Ἡρακλέους δὲ καὶ Διονύσου Μεγασθένης μὲν μετʼ ὀλίγων πιστὰ ἡγεῖται, τῶν δʼ ἄλλων οἱ πλείους, ὧν ἐστι καὶ Ἐρατοσθένης, ἄπιστα καὶ μυθώδη, καθάπερ καὶ τὰ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐν ταῖς Βάκχαις ταῖς Εὐριπίδου Διόνυσος τοιαῦτα νεανιεύεται λιπὼν δὲ Λυδῶν τὰς πολυχρύσους γύας Φρυγῶν τε Περσῶν θʼ ἡλιοβλήτους πλάκας Βάκτριά τε τείχη τήν τε δύσχειμον χθόνα Μήδων ἐπῆλθον Ἀραβίαν τʼ εὐδαίμονα Ἀσίαν τε πᾶσαν. παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ δέ τίς ἐστι τὴν Νῦσαν καθυμνῶν ὡς τὸ Διονύσῳ καθιερωμένον ὄρος ὅθεν κατεῖδον τὴν βεβακχιωμένην βροτοῖσι κλεινὴν Νῦσαν, ἣν ὁ βούκερως Ἴακχος * αὐτῷ μαῖαν ἡδίστην νέμει, ὅπου τίς ὄρνις οὐχὶ κλαγγάνει; καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς περὶ Λυκούργου τοῦ Ἠδωνοῦ φησιν οὕτως ὅς ποτε μαινομένοιο Διωνύσοιο τιθήνας σεῦε κατʼ ἠγάθεον Νυσήιον. τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ περὶ Διονύσου. περὶ δὲ Ἡρακλέους οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τἀναντία μόνον μέχρι τῶν ἑσπερίων περάτων ἱστοροῦσιν, οἱ δʼ ἐφʼ ἑκάτερα.

Megasthenes, and a few others, think the stories respecting Hercules and Bacchus to be credible, but the majority of writers, among whom is Eratosthenes, regard them as incredible and fabulous, like the Grecian stories. Dionysus, in the Bacchae of Euripides, makes this boasting speech: But now from Lydia’s field,
With gold abounding, from the Phrygian realm
And that of Persia scorch’d by torrid suns,
Pressing through Bactrian gates, the frozen land
Of Media, and through Araby the Blest,
With Asia’s wide extended continent—
In Sophocles, also, a person is introduced speaking the praises of Nysa, as being a mountain sacred to Bacchus: ‘whence I beheld the famed Nysa, the resort of the Bacchanalian bands, which the horned Iacchus makes his most pleasant and beloved retreat, where no bird’s clang is heard,” and so on. [He is called also Merotraphes.]
Homer also mentions Lycurgus the Edonian in these words, who formerly pursued the nurses of the infuriate Bacchus along the sacred mountain Nysa.
So much respecting Bacchus. But with regard to Hercules, some persons say, that he penetrated to the opposite extremities on the west only, while others maintain that he also advanced to those of the east.