[81] “Mythologiae, sive Explicationis Fabularum Libri X,” (Mythology, or the Explanation of Legendary Tales, in X Books). Frankfort 1588. 8vo. pp. 498. The Author borrowed this legend according to p. 487 from Perimander, “De Sacrificiorum Ritibus apud Varias Gentes,” (On the Rites of Sacrifice amongst Various Nations), bk. II. But it is also found in the Scholiast to Aristophanes, Acharn. 1. 242: ὁ Ξανθίας τὸν φαλλὸν.—περὶ δὲ αὐτοῦ τοῦ φαλλοῦ τοιαῦτα λέγεται. Πήγασος ἐκ τῶν Ἐλευθήρων λαβὼν τοῦ Διονύσου τὰ ἀγάλματα ἧκεν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικήν· οἱ δὲ Ἀττικοὶ οὐκ ἐδέξαντο μετὰ τιμῆς τὸν θεόν· ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἀμισθί γε αὐτοῖς ταῦτα βουλευσαμένοις ἀπέβη. μηνίσαντος γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ, νόσος κατέσκηψεν εἰς τὰ αἰδοῖα τῶν ἀνδρῶν, καὶ τὸ δεινὸν ἀνήκεστον ἦν, ὡς δὲ ἀπεῖπον πρὸς τὴν νόσον κρείττω γενομένην πάσης μαγγανείας καὶ τέχνης, ἀπεστάλησαν θεωροὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς· οἱ δὲ ἐπανελθόντες ἔφασαν ἴασιν εἶναι μόνην ταύτην, εἰ διὰ πάσης τιμῆς ἄγοιεν τὸν θεόν· πεισθέντες οὖν τοῖς ἠγγελμένοις οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, φαλλοὺς ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ κατεσκεύασαν, καὶ τούτοις ἐγέραιρον τὸν θεόν, ὑπόμνημα ποιούμενοι πάθους. (Xanthias mentions the Phallus.—Now about the Phallus itself the following story is told. Pegasus removed the statues of Dionysus at Eleutherae from there, and came to Athens with them. However the Athenians did not receive the god with due honour. But for this ill counsel they by no means got off scot-free; for the god was wroth, and a disease fell upon the private parts of the men. The plague was incurable; and after they had tried in vain every device of magic art and physician’s skill against the disease that only grew the more, envoys were despatched with all speed to the oracle. So these went up, and brought back the reply that the only remedy was this, that they should bring in the god in procession with all possible honour. Therefore the Athenians, submitting themselves to what was reported as the will of heaven, made phalli—private and public, and presented them to the god as a complimentary gift, thus commemorating the affliction). A different explanation from this is given by the Scholiast to Lucian, “De Syra dea,” (Of the Syrian goddess), ch. 16., where the Phallus service is brought in a measure into connection with Paederastia.
[82] Comp. Pausanias, Descriptio Graeciae bk. I. ch. 2.
[83] I. ch. p. 528.; perhaps following Posidonius, “De heroibus et daemonibus,” (Of heroes and demigods)? comp. p. 391. But Servius on Virgil, Georgics IV. 111., also has this legend. Suidas, under the word πρίαπος. Scioppius, who likewise relates it in his edition of the Priapeia, adds: fuit autem morbus ille quem hodie Gallicum vocamus, (but it was the disease which we nowadays call the French disease—Siphylis).
[84] Diodorus Siculus, Bk. IV. ch. 4., says of Bacchus: He had a tender body and was extremely effeminate; his beauty distinguished him above all others, and his temper was strongly inclined to voluptuousness. On his progresses he used to take with him a crowd of women, etc. Clement of Alexandria, Paedag. Bk. II. ch. 2., Ὀργῶσι γοῦν ἀναιδέστερον ἀναξέοντες οἴνου, καὶ οἰδοῦσι μαστοί τε καὶ μόρια, προκηρύσσοντες ἤδη πορνείας εἰκόνα. (So they revel shamelessly being full of wine, and breasts and members swell, showing forth already an image of harlotry). Sufficiently noteworthy is the following passage from Augustine, De Civit. Dei bk. VI. ch. 4., Liberum a liberamento appellatum volunt, quod mares a coeundo per eius beneficium emissis seminibus liberentur; hoc idem in feminis agere Liberam quam etiam Venerem putant, quod et ipsas perhibeant semina emittere et ob hoc Libero eamdem virilis corporis partem in templo poni, femineam Liberae. (The name of Liber (Bacchus) they derive from liberamentum, the act of freeing, because males in the act of coition are freed by his aid when the seed is emitted; the same function they consider Libera, who is identified with Venus, to perform for women, because they say that women also emit seed, and that for this reason that same part of the male body is consecrated to Liber in his temple, and the corresponding female part to Libera).
[85] Juno was not merely the Patron goddess of the birth-hour, but also of fornication. Comp. Dousa, Praecidan. pro Tibullo, ch. 18.—Politian, Miscell. ch. 89. Hence also “filles de joies” used to swear by Juno, as we see from Tibullus, Bk. III. Eleg. 4.,
Esto perque suos fallax iuravit ocellos,
Junonemque suam, perque suam Venerem,
(Be it so, she said, and the deceiver sware it by her own eyes, and by Juno and by Venus, her patron goddesses). Bk. IV. Eleg. 18.,
Haec per sancta tuae Junonis nomina iuro,
Quae sola ante alios est mihi magna Deos.