Priapeia

Priaepia

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

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