Priapeia

Priaepia

by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers

  1. Here too of Circe we read and Calypso, daughter of Atlas,
  2. Bearing the mighty commands dealt by Dulichian Brave
  3. Whom did Alcinous' maiden admire by cause of his member
  4. For with a leafy branch hardly that yard could be dad.
  5. Yet was he hasting, his way to regain his little old woman:
  6. Thy coynte (Penelope!) claiming his every thought;
  7. Thou who bidest so chaste with mind ever set upon banquets
  8. And with a futtering crew alway thy palace was filled:
  9. Then that thou learn of these which were most potent of swiving,
  10. Wont wast thou to bespeak, saying to suitors erect--
  11. 'Than my Ulysses none was better at drawing the bowstring
  12. Whether by muscles of side or by superior skill;
  13. And, as he now is deceased, do ye all draw and inform me
  14. Which of ye men be the best so that my man he become.'
  15. Thy heart, Penelope, right sure by such pow'r I had pleasèd,