Note (return) — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

In the principal post-Homeric versions, the Tyrrhenians endeavor to kidnap Dionysos under pretext of conveying him to Naxos, the circumstances being variously related. Thus in the Ναξίακά of Aglaosthenes (apud HYGIN. Poet. Astronom. II. 17), the child Dionysos and his companions are to be taken to the nymphs, his nurses. According to Ovid, 84 the pirates find the god on the shore of Chios, stupid with sleep and wine, and bring him on board their vessel. On awaking he desires to be conveyed to Naxos, but the pirates turn to the left, whereupon, as they give no heed to his remonstrances, they are changed to dolphins and leap into the sea. Similarly Servius, Ad. Verg. Aen., I. 67. In the Fabulæ of Hyginus (CXXXIV), and in Pseudo-Apollodorus, 85 Dionysos engages passage with the Tyrrhenians. Nonnus, however, returns to the Homeric story, which he has modified, extended, and embellished in his own peculiar way. 86 These versions, to which may be added that of Seneca, 87 all agree in making the scene take place on shipboard, and, if we except the "comites" of Aglaosthenes, in none of them is the god accompanied by a retinue of satyrs. But Philostratus 88 pretends to describe a painting, in which two ships are portrayed, the pirate-craft lying in ambush for the other, which bears Dionysos and his rout.