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nor nocturnal Cytaeis,

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: