Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Indians: Eratosthenes and Strabo on legendary Nysaians and Sibians (third century BCE / early first century CE),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified August 5, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=21329.
Ancient author: Eratosthenes of Cyrene (third century BCE), Geography = FGrHist 241 F21, 69 (link to FGrHist), as discussed and cited by Strabo (early first century CE), Geography 15.1.7-12 (link).
Comments: In this passage, Strabo rejects Megasthenes and instead draws on Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes doubts as mythical several difference campaigns by Herakles, Dionysos, and even Alexander. So the so-called Nysaians and Sibians of India are likewise considered mythical.
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[For Strabo’s preceding discussion on travelers, soldiers and merchants as sources of information for Indians, go to this link].
[Eratosthenes on accounts of the expeditions of Herakles and Dionysos]
(15.1.7-12) As for the stories of Herakles and Dionysos, Megasthenes with a few others considers them trustworthy. However, most other authors, including Eratosthenes, consider them untrustworthy and mythical, like the stories current among the Greeks. For instance, in Euripides play about the Bacchic Devotees (or: Bacchae), Dionysos says with youthful bravado as follows: “I have left behind me the gold-bearing glades of Lydia and Phrygia, and I have visited the sun-stricken plains of Persia, the walled towns of Baktria, the wintry land of the Medes, and Arabia the blessed, and the whole of Asia.” In Sophokles as well there is someone who sings the praises of Nysa as the mountain sacred to Dionysos: “From which place I viewed the famous Nysa, ranged in Bacchic frenzy by mortals, which the horned Iacchos roams as his own sweetest nurse, where — what bird exists that does not sing there?,” and so forth. And he is also called “Merotraphes.” And Homer says of Lykourgos the Edonian as follows: “Who once drove the nurses of frenzied Dionysos down over the sacred mount of Nysa.” So much for Dionysos. But, regarding Herakles, some tell the story that he went in the opposite direction only, as far as the extreme limits on the west, whereas others say that he went to both extreme limits.
[Legendary Nysaians of India]
From such stories, accordingly, writers have named a certain people called “Nysaians” [i.e. in India] and a city among them “Nysa,” founded by Dionysos. They have named a mountain above the city “Meros,” alleging as the cause of the name the ivy that grows there, as also the vine, which latter does not reach maturity either. Because of excessive rains the bunches of grapes fall off before they ripen. They also say that the Sydrakians are descendants of Dionysos, judging from the vine in their country and from their costly processions, since the kings not only make their expeditions out of their country in Bacchic fashion, but also accompany all other processions with a beating of drums and with flowered robes, a custom which is also prevalent among the rest of the Indians.
[Legendary Sibians of India in connnection with Alexander’s campaign]
When Alexander, at one assault, took Aornos – a rock at the foot of which, near its sources, the Indus river flows – those who praise Alexander said that Herakles attacked this rock three times and was repulsed three times. Those who praise Alexander said that the Sibians were descendants of those who shared with Herakles in the expedition, and that they retained badges of their descent, in that they wore skins like Herakles, carried clubs, and branded their cattle and mules with the mark of a club. And those who praise Alexander further confirm this myth by the stories of the Caucasus and Prometheus, for they have transferred all this there [i.e. from the Caucasus range on east of the Black Sea to India] on a slight pretext, I mean because they saw a sacred cave in the country of the Paropamisadai. For they claim that this cave was the prison of Prometheus and that this was the place from where Herakles came to release Prometheus, and that this was the Caucasus the Greeks declared to be the prison of Prometheus.
However, that these stories are fabrications of the flatterers of Alexander is obvious. First of all, not only do the historians not agree with one another. In addition, while some relate them, others make no mention whatever of them. For it is unreasonable to believe that exploits so famous and full of romance were unknown to any historian, or, if they were known, that they were regarded as unworthy of recording, and that too by the most trustworthy of the historians. Secondly, it is obvious these are fabrications from the fact that not even the intervening peoples, through whose countries Dionysos and Herakles and their followers would have had to pass in order to reach India, can show any evidence that these made a journey through their country. Further, such paraphernalia [lion skin and club] of Herakles is much later than the records of the Trojan war, being a fabrication of the authors of the Herakleia, whether the author was Peisander or someone else. The ancient statues of Herakles are not shown with that paraphernalia.
So, in cases like these, one must accept everything that is closest to being credibile. I have already in my first discussion of the subject of geography made decisions, as far as I could, about these matters. And now I will unhesitatingly use those decisions as accepted, and will also add anything else that seems required for the purpose of clearness.
It was particularly apparent from my former discussion that the summary account presented in the third book of Eratosthenes Geography – about what was in his time regarded as India, that is, when Alexander invaded the country – is the most trustworthy. The Indus river was the boundary between India and Ariana. Ariana was situated next to India on the west and was in the possession of the Persians at that time. Later on, the Indians also held much of Ariana, having received it from the Macedonians.
[Citation from Eratosthenes about India, with occasional reference to peoples]
And the account given by Eratosthenes is as follows: “India is bounded on the north, from Ariana to the eastern sea, by the extremities of the Taurus mountain range, which by the natives are called “Paropamisos,” “Emodos” and “Imaos” and other names, but by the Macedonians “Kaukasos” (Caucasus mountain range). On the west India is bounded by the Indus River. But the southern and eastern sides of India, which are much larger than the other two, extend out into the Atlantic sea. So the shape of the country becomes rhomboidal . . .” [omitted extensive discussion of debates about the dimensions of India].
[For Strabo’s subsequent discussion of Indians, Brahmans, Samanaians, and paradoxical peoples, go to this link].
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Source of translation: H.L. Jones, Strabo, 8 volumes, LCL (Cambridge, MA: HUP, 1917-28), public domain (passed away in 1932), adapted by Harland.