Priapeia
Priaepia
by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers
- While Taenarus' billowy seas confess the King.
- Pallas preserveth the Cecropian towers;
- Pythius Delphos, navel of the world;
- Delia the Cretan Isle and Cynthian hills;
- Faunus hath Maenalos and Arcadian groves.
- Rhodos is happy protégé of Sol;
- Gades and Tibur dank of Hercules;
- Snowy Cyllene of the swift-paced God
- And seething Lemnos of the limping Sire;
- Ennéan matrons unto Ceres flock,
- To the raped Goddess oystery Cyzicus;
- Gnidos and Paphos lovely Venus hail
- While mortals dedicate Lampsacus to thee.
- Though I be agèd now, though head and chin
- Now show them hoary-hue'd with grizzling hair,
- Still can I perforate those caught by me,
- Tithonus, Priam, Nestor--every one.
- You see how mightily my rage ye rouse
- Who hem me ever with a bullfinch hedge
- Forbidding robbers from approaching me.