The Greeks in Bactria and India c11.9

c11.9

Perhaps I may be permitted here one moment of pure fantasy. There is in existence, I believe somewhere in the United States, a slab of stone brought from Swat on which a Greek artist has carved two figures. I have not sought to trace it, as it is not historical evidence; but the figures have appeared in a very remarkable work of fiction,¹ and one who saw the slab before it was sold has assured me that the description of them there given is entirely accurate. One of the figures is a Greek Victory, and facing her is a strange composite creature with the head of a Greek Zeus and the body, repulsively rendered, of a native; and it pleases me to imagine that some Greek nationalist was here giving his views of the Indian empire of Demetrius and Menander: ‘*This* then is the result of our victories—this mongrel monstrosity.’ It is but a fancy; and his