(This by the holy divinity of Juno, thy goddess, I swear, who alone before other deities is great in my eyes); and also from Petronius, who (Satir. ch. 25.) makes a “fille de joie” declare: Junonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam meminerim virginem fuisse (Juno my patron goddess be wroth with me, if ever I remember to have been a maid). According to Lucian, De Syra Dea ch. 16., Bacchus dedicated to Juno noverca (stepmother) divers Phalli.
[86] The Greeks used to make little figures of men with big genitals of wood, which they called Νευρόσπαστα (figures moved by strings, puppets). Lucian, De Syra Dea ch. 16. Herodotus, II. 48. Diodorus, I. 88.—Hesychius says: νάνος· ἐπὶ τῶν μικρῶν· ὡς νάνον καὶ αἰδοῖον ἔχοντα μέγα· οἱ γοῦν νάνοι μεγάλα ἔχουσιν αἰδοῖα, (dwarf: applied to the undersized; dwarf, but having large private parts. Dwarfs do have large private parts). Which reminds us of the unhappy “cretins” with monstrous generative organs, who are notoriously passionate Onanists (Masturbators) also.
[87] “Priapeia, sive diversorum poetarum in Priapum lusus, illustrati commentariis Casp. Scioppii, Franci; L. Apuleji Madaurensis Ἀνεχόμενος ab eodem illustratus. Heraclii imperatoris, Sophoclis Sophistae, C. Antonii, Q. Sorani et Cleopatrae reginae epistolae de prodigiosa Cleopatrae reginae libidine. Huic editioni accedunt Jos. Scaligeri in Priapeia Commentarii ac Friderici Linden-Bruch. Patavii 1664. 8. pag. 45. carmen XXXVII,” (Priapeia, or Verses of Various Poets to Priapus, illustrated by commentaries of Caspar Scioppius, a Frenchman; also Lucius Apuleius, of Madaura, his Ἀνεχόμενος, illustrated by the same Scholar. Letters of the Emperor Heraclius, Sophocles the Sophist, Caius Ausonius, Quintus Soranus and Queen Cleopatra, concerning the extravagant and wanton voluptuousness of the said Queen. To this edition are appended the Commentaries of Joseph Scaliger and of Fridericus Linden-Bruch to the Priapeia. Padua 1664. 8vo., p. 45. Ode XXXVII).
[88] Similarly we read in the distich Antipater, Antholog. Graec. bk. II. Tit. 5. No. 3.:
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).
[89] In the Codex Coburgensis the Priapeia begin with the following words: P. Virgilii Maronis Mantuani poetae clarissimi Priapi carmen incipit feliciter, (the Song of Priapus by Publius Virgilius Maro, of Mantua, the renowned poet, begins happily). Comp. Bruckhusius Notes to Tibullus bk. IV. Eleg. 14. At any rate the majority of the poems belong to the golden age of Roman literature. For readers of the old poets it may perhaps not be out of place here to remark that Priapus as Cultor Hortorum (Patron of Gardens) is not unfrequently mentioned with an equivocal meaning, if indeed he has not come into the garden entirely through misunderstanding. So we read in Priapeia, Ode 4.,
Quod metis hortus habet, sumas impune licebit;
Si dederis nobis, quod tuus hortus habet,