page_title: Priapus
section_title: Depictions
hierarchical_section_title: Priapus / Depictions
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Priape dit "de Rivery" d'après son lieu de découverte: statuette de Priape constituée de deux parties, trouvée à Rivery (Somme) en 1771. 2ème moitié du 1er siècle après JC.Musée de Picardie à Amiens.(Montage photo montrant les deux parties séparées et réunies.) English: Bronze statuette possibly of the Roman fertility god Priapus, made in two parts (shown here in assembled and disassembled forms). This statuette has been dated to the late 1st century C.E. It was found in Rivery, in Picardy, France in 1771 and is the oldest Gallo-Roman object in the collection of the Museum of Picardy. This figurine represents the deity clothed in a "cuculus", a Gallic coat with hood, and may be an example of the Genii cucullati. This upper section is detachable and conceals a phallus.
context_page_description: In Greek mythology, Priapus was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He became a popular figure in Roman erotic art and Latin literature, and is the subject of the often humorously obscene collection of verse called the Priapeia.
context_section_description: Priapus' iconic attribute was his priapism (permanently erect penis); he probably absorbed some pre-existing ithyphallic deities as his cult developed. He was represented in a variety of ways, most commonly as a misshapen gnome-like figure with an enormous erect phallus. Statues of Priapus were common in ancient Greece and Rome, standing in gardens. The Athenians often conflated Priapus with Hermes, the god of boundaries, and depicted a hybrid deity with a winged helmet, sandals, and huge erection.
  Another attribute of Priapus was the sickle which he often carries in his right hand. This too was used to threaten thieves, doubtless with castration: Horace (Sat. 1.8.1–7) writes:
  Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
  cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,
  maluit esse deum. deus inde ego, furum aviumque
  maxima formido; nam fures dextra coercet
  obscenoque ruber porrectus ab inguine palus;
  ast importunes volucres in vertice harundo
  terret fixa vetatque novis considere in hortis.
  "Once I was a trunk of fig, a useless piece of wood,
  when a carpenter, unsure whether he should make a bench or a Priapus,
  decided to make a god. So I am a god, of thieves and birds
  a very great scarer; for my right hand curbs thieves,
  as does the red pole which projects from my indecent groin;
  but as for the importunate birds, the reed fixed on my head
  terrifies them and forbids them to settle in the new gardens."
  A number of epigrams, apparently written as if to adorn shrines of Priapus, were collected in the Priapeia. In these, Priapus frequently threatens sexual assault against potential thieves:
  Percidere, puer, moneo; futuere, puella;
     barbatum furem tertia poena manet.
  "I warn you, boy, you will be screwed; girl, you will be laid with;
     a third penalty awaits the bearded thief."
  Femina si furtum faciet mihi virve puerve,
     haec cunnum, caput hic praebeat, ille nates.
  "If a woman steals from me, or a man, or a boy,
     let the first give me her cunt, the second his head, the third his buttocks."
  per medios ibit pueros mediasque puellas
     mentula; barbatis non-nisi summa petet.
  "My dick will go through the middle of boys and the middle of girls,
     but with bearded men it will aim only for the top."
  A number of Roman paintings of Priapus have survived. One of the most famous images of Priapus is that from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. A fresco depicts the god weighing his phallus against a large bag of coins. In nearby Herculaneum, an excavated snack bar has a painting of Priapus behind the bar, apparently as a good-luck symbol for the customers.
caption: Gallo-Roman bronze statuette (ca 1st century AD) of Priapus (or a Genius cucullatus?) discovered in Picardy, northern France, made in two parts, with the top section concealing a giant phallus.
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