Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. O'ermuch these matrons know and they regard
  2. With willing glances this my vasty yard.
  1. 'Why be my parts obscene displayed without cover?' thou askest:
  2. Ask I wherefore no God careth his sign to conceal?
  3. Wieldeth the Lord of the World his thunderbolt ever unhidden,
  4. Nor is trident a-sheath given to the Watery God:
  5. Mars never veileth that blade whose might is his prevalent power,
  6. Nor in her tepid lap Pallas concealeth the spear: