612 ON THE DIONYSIACS OF NONNUS 



a cavern amongst the mountains of Alybes, on the river Gendis. Bacchus 

 teaches the mountaineers the cultivation of the grape and the manufacture 

 of wine. It requires more ingenuity than I pretend to, to discover any 

 thing decidedly Hindu in these occurrences. 



Astrais, the former commander of the Indians, applies to a Chief 

 named Orontes, for succour. Orontes is the son of the River Deity 

 Hydaspes, and father-in-law of Deriades. He raises an army against 

 Bacchus, and by the course of the story it should appear that he is the 

 aggressor, invading Asia Minor or Lydia. Being overthrown, he kills 

 himself rather than submit, calling upon the sun and earth and holy water, 

 " the God of the Indians," to witness his determination to reject the yoke 

 of the effeminate Bromius : 



Hiktov zcci ydiav drigf/bova, xat Szov hdcuv 



Kyiov vhug. 

 This adjuration does bear an Indian character, and although the name 

 Orontes does not offer any very close approximation to a Sanscrit ori- 

 ginal, it may possibly be derived from Arindas or Arindamas, " the sub- 

 duer of enemies," an epithet sometimes applied to Hindu warriors and 

 kings. At the same time, Nonnus is not the inventor of this story ; for 

 two centuries before his time Pausanias states that it was a tradition in 

 Syria, that an Indian warrior had fallen in battle on the banks of the 

 Orontes, which was thence named after him. He also mentions that a 

 skeleton, eleven cubits long, having been found near the river, the Syrians 

 consulted the oracle of Claros, which replied that it was undoubtedly the 

 skeleton of the Indian hero. Nonnus says that the Hamadryads interred 

 Orontes on the banks of the Daphne, and inscribed upon his tomb ; "the 

 General of the army, the Indian Orontes, after defying Bacchus, lies 

 here killed by his own right hand." 



Buz-fcov apKqirug arqurrig Kgopog sfoafa xeircti 

 A.VTOTTQVU TicCka^Ti fadaiyfAZvog 'Ivbog 'OgovTtig, 



