nor grasses brewed by the
hand of Perimede.
Cytaeis is the witch Medea: while Perimede is another witch, called by Homer Agamede.
The Bacchic cult in Egypt is described by the Greek historian Herodotus in Book 2 of his History of the Persian Wars:
To Bacchus, on the eve of his feast, every Egyptian sacrifices a hog before the door of his house, which is then given back to the swineherd by whom it was furnished, and by him carried away. In other respects the festival is celebrated almost exactly as Bacchic festivals are in Greece, excepting that the Egyptians have no choral dances. They also use instead of phalli another invention, consisting of images a cubit high, pulled by strings, which the women carry round to the villages. A piper goes in front, and the women follow, singing hymns in honor of Bacchus. They give a religious reason for the peculiarities of the image.
In Book 5 of The History of the Persian Wars, Herodotus describes some of the marital customs of the Thracians:
The Thracians who live above the Crestonaeans observe the following customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no sooner does a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the wives upon the question, which of them all the husband loved most tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on her behalf, and she to whom the honor is adjudged, after receiving the praises both of men and women, is slain over the grave by the hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband. The others are sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a disgrace.
The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which follow. They sell their children to traders. On their maidens they keep no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct of their wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased of their parents for large sums of money.... The gods which they worship are but three, Mars, Bacchus, and Dian.