Dionysiaca, Volume II

Epic revels. Nonnos of Panopolis in Egypt, who lived in the fifth century of our era, composed the last great epic poem of antiquity. The Dionysiaca , in forty-eight books, has for its chief theme the expedition of Dionysus against the Indians; but the poet contrives to include all the adventures of the god (as well as much other mythological lore) in a narrative that begins with chaos in heaven and ends with the apotheosis of Ariadne's crown.