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Krsna and Balarama in Greece "The people of Marathon worship both those who died in the fighting, calling them 'heroes,' and [a semi-divine being called] 'Marathon,' from whom the country derives its name, but also Heracles . . . . They say also that a man took part in the battle who looked and was dressed like a farmer. He slaughtered many of the Persians with his plowshare, and when everything was over he disappeared. But when the Athenians consulted the oracle, the god would not tell them anything except to honor 'Echetlaeus' [i.e. the man with the plowshare] as a hero." However, the worship of Sankarsana appears to have been quite popular in the fourth century BC and Megasthenes seems to refer to him. The Greek writer referring to Dionysos clearly states that the Indians speak of three individuals of this name appearing in different ages and they assign suitable achievements to each of these. The oldest of these was Indos, apparently the same as Indra, "who crushed grapes and discovered the use of the properties of wine." He further states that Dionysos also found out the method of growing figs and other fruit trees and taught this knowledge to others whence he was called Lenaios. This may be a corruption of Lingayasas or Lingin, a name for Siva. The third god spoken of in this context is Katapogon; and Megasthenes states that he was so named because it is a custom among Indians to grow their beards with great care. Katapogon is evidently the same as Kapardin, meaning one wearing braided and matted hair. The epithet is usually applied to Siva, but it may have been applied to Sankarsana also since the worshippers of Sankarsana, as we have noted earlier, wore braided (jatila) hair. Dionysus
From ‘Pausanias, Description of Greece’, 1.32.4, quoted in George Luck’s ‘Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds’. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, (1985) Herakles
The earliest epigraphic evidence for the existence of the Bhagavata cult is found in Madhya Pradesh. The discovery of the Garuda pillar inscription of Besnagar is a landmark in the history of Bhagavatism. The inscription records the erection of a Garuda standard in honour of Vasudeva, the god of gods, by a Greek ambassador Heliodorus who describes himself as a Bhagavata (see Heliodorus Column), and a resident of Taksasila. The ambassador came from the Greek king Antialcidis to Kautsiputra Bhagabhadra identified with the fifth Sunga king, and the record is dated in the fourteenth year of his reign, approximating to c. 113 B.C." Suvira Jaisval, The Origin and Deveopment of Vaisnavism (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1967) The
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At
any rate, the three gods who could have been confused with Dionysos
by Megasthenes are apparently Indra, Siva and Sankarsana, all the three
are associated with wine and renowned for their bacchanalian habits.
Arrian informs us that before the coming of Dionysos, Indians were nomads
subsisting on the bark of the trees known as tala (fan-palm) and that
when Dionysos came to India he taught them to sow the land, and it was
he who "first yoked oxen to the plough and made many Indian husbandmen
and gave the people the seeds of cultivated plants." 
The
description eminently suits the agricultural divinity Sankarsana, the
wielder of the plough, with the fan-palm as his emblem. Arrian also
writes that according to the Indians, Dionysos was earlier than Herakles
by fifteen generations; and, as Herakles is generally identified with
Vasudeva-Krsna in the popular mythology of the fourth century B.C.,
the Krishna and Baladeva legends had not yet acquired the final shape
in which they are presented to us in the Mahabharata and the Puranas."
"It
is pointed out in the Bhagavad-gita that Arjuna often addresses Vasudeva
Krsna as Visnu. But the date of this work is highly controversial. It
is closely linked with that of the epic in its present form. The assertion
of another scholar (Pusalkar) about Megasthenes "The Greek ambassador
definitely states that Krsna was regarded as an incarnation of Visnu"
is evidently baseless. All that Megasthenes is reported to have said
is "This Herakles is held in especial honour by Sourasenoi, an Indian
tribe who possess two large cities Mathora and Cleisobora and through
whose country flows a navigable river called Iobares." Herakles has
been identified with Vasudeva Krsna and Sourasenoi with the Surasena
Yadavas. The use of the words "especial honour" clearly indicates that
Krsna was still a minor divinity, far from being the supreme god that
he becomes with his identification with Narayana-Visnu; by no stretch
of the imagination can it be construed to refer to Narayana-Visnu.
In
the early centuries preceding and succeeding the Christian era, the
entry of foreign tribes into India produced a favourable impact on the
cults of Vaisnvaite and Saivite divinities, which, on the whole, enjoyed
the support of the foreigners. The Greeks identified Krsna with Herakles
and Sankarsana with Dionysos, and it is no wonder that they were favourably
inclined to their worship. The Besnagar inscription describes the Greek
ambassador Heliodorus as a Bhagavata who dedicated a Garuda banner to
Lord Vasudeva.