Priapeia

The  (or Carmina Priapea) is a collection of eighty (in some editions ninety-five) anonymous short Latin poems in various meters on subjects pertaining to the phallic god Priapus. They are believed to date from the 1st century AD or the beginning of the 2nd century. A traditional theory about their origin is that they are an anthology of poems written by various authors on the same subject. However, it has recently been argued that the 80 poems are in fact the work of a single author, presenting a kind of biography of Priapus from his vigorous youth to his impotence in old age.

The Plague of Lust

 * Reported in: Julius Rosenbaum, The Plague of Lust, vol. 1 (Paris, 1901), pp. 8–9, 46–49, 97, 131, 201


 * Ludens haec ego teste te, Priape, Horto carmina digna, non libello; Ergo quidquid est, quod otiosus Templi parietibus tui notavi In partem accipias honam rogamus.
 * The songs I sing, thou art my witness, Priapus, are worthy but of a garden, not of a book. Wherefore whate'er it be that in leisure hours I have writ on thy temple-walls, receive, we pray, in good part.
 * Carmina 1.


 * Quisquis venerit hue, poeta fiat, Et versus mihi deuicet iocosos; Qui non fecerit, inter eruditos Ficosissimus ambulet poeta. Tu quicunque vides circa tectoria nostra Non nimium casti carmina plena ioci;
 * Whosoe'er comes hither must become a poet and dedicate to me some merry lines; whoe'er refuses, amidst the learned let him walk most wooden of poets.
 * Carmina 41.


 * Cur pictum memori sit in tabella Membrum quaeritis unde procreamur? Cum penis mihi forte laesus esset, Chirurgique manum miser timerem, Diis me legitimis, nimisque magnis Ut Phoebo puta, filioque Phoebi Curatum dare mentulam verebar. Huic dixi, fer opem, Priape, parti, Cuius tu, pater, ipse par videris: Qua salva sine sectione facta, Ponetur tibi picta, quam levaris, Parque consimilisque concolorque. Promisit fore: mentulam movlt Pro nutu deus et rogata fecit.
 * Why, you ask, is portrayed on the tablet the member whereby we are begotten? When, as it befell, my penis was damaged, and like a wretched coward I dreaded the Surgeon's hand, I was afraid to entrust myself and the cure of my organ to the great official gods, that were too high for me, such I mean as Phoebus and Phoebus' son. "To the member, I said, do thou, Priapus, give aid,—the member that thou art fashioned in the likeness of. Then when it has been healed without the knife, a painted image of the part thou has relieved shall be dedicated to thee,—a match, a perfect match in form and in hue." Thus he made his vow; the god nodded his penis in token of assent, and answered his prayers.
 * Carmina 37. Voti Solutio (Paying a Vow)
 * Similarly we read in the distich of Antipater, , bk. II. Tit. 5. No. 3 [11.224; G-P 99]:Ἑστηκὸς τὸ Κίμωνος ἰδὼν πέος, εἶφ᾿ ὁ Πρίηπος· Οἴμοι, ὑπὸ θνητοῦ λείπομαι ἀθάνατος.When Priapus saw Cimon's penis standing stiff, he said, "Woe's me!" I am thrown in the shade by a mortal, immortal though I be.


 * ''Deliciae populi, magno notissima circo Quintia.
 * Quintia, so well known in the Great Circus.
 * Carmina 26.


 * Quaedam, si placet hoc tibi, Priape, Ficosissima me puella ludit, Et non dat mihi, nee negat daturam; Causasque invenit usque differendi. Quae si contigerit fruenda nobis, Totam cum paribus, Priape, nostris Cingemus tibi mentulam coronis.
 * A certain girl, if it please you to listen, Priapus, is playing with me. Most sorely afflicted is she with swellings; and she will not give herself to me, yet does not say she never will, and ever finds excuses for putting off and putting off. Now if ever she shall be mine to enjoy, I and my comrades with me, will wreath all thy penis, Priapus, with garlands.
 * Carmina 50.
 * The girl, who was badly affected with these swellings, and that presumably in the secret parts, refuses her lover coition. The latter does not insist, but prays to Priapus, as was habitually done in all cases of affections of the genitals and vows to deck his penis with garlands. It follows that the lover was aware these swellings would be injurious to him, if he should constrain the girl, of whom the poet says, nec negat daturam ("yet does not say she will not give herself"), to lie with him.


 * Licebit aeger, angue lentior.
 * [The penis] will be reckoned as sick, slacker than a snake.
 * Carmina 83, v. 33