Priapeia
Priaepia
by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers
- Who with no tunic veiling hinder cheeks
- Higher than her vitals heaves with apter geste
- Wriggle to please thee with her wavy loins?
- So thee, Priapus, not alone she'll move
- E'en Phaedra's stepson shall her movement rouse.
- Thunders are under Jove; with the trident weaponed is Neptune;
- Forceful is Mars with brand, spear, O Minerva, is thine;
- Liber engages in fray, confiding on sheaflets of Thyrsi;
- By th' Apollinean hand shafts (they assure us) are shot;
- Hercules' right is armed with the club that cannot be conquer'd;
- But a distended yard makes me an object of awe.
- Wealth is my loss! Do thou vouchsafe lend aid to my prayer,
- Nor, by thy signal shown, me, O Priapus, betray:
- Whatso before thee I laid, of home-grown apples the firstlings,