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Priapus |
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Priapus (prīā`pəs), in Greek religion, fertility god of gardens and herds; son of Aphrodite and Dionysus. He was represented as a grotesque little man with an enormous phallus. Priapus was important in fertility rites. PriapusGreek god of animal and vegetable fertility. He was represented in a caricature of the human form, grotesquely misshapen, with an enormous phallus. The ass was sacrificed in his honor, probably because it symbolized lecherousness and was associated with the god's sexual potency. His father was Dionysus and his mother was either a local nymph or Aphrodite. In Hellenistic times the worship of Priapus spread throughout the ancient world, and he was adopted as the god of gardens. Priapus son of Aphrodite and Dionysus; grotesque man with huge phallus. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 233] See : Deformity Priapus monstrous genitals led him on the wayward path. [Rom. Myth.: Hall, 252] See : Lust Priapus male generative power personified. [Gk. Myth.: Espy, 27, 224] See : Virility How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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Of the rushing couples there could barely be discerned more than the high lights--the indistinctness shaping them to satyrs clasping nymphs--a multiplicity of Pans whirling a multiplicity of Syrinxes; Lotis attempting to elude Priapus, and always failing. It was at this college that he had sketched out what he called his studies, and, through a scholar's teasing habit which still lingered in him, he never passed the façade without inflicting on the statue of Cardinal Pierre Bertrand, sculptured to the right of the portal, the affront of which Priapus complains so bitterly in the satire of Horace, |
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