Meet Priapus the god of Wine and carnal pleasures. Learn about his great attributes and powers, places of worship and current followers.
Priapus
Priapus, god of wine and ecstasy, was a minor god in Greek mythology. His distinguishing feature was his swollen phallus. In Roman mythology, his connection to Ares, the god of war, is more prominent, as Priapus taught the boy the skills of war. Cursed with his gigantic phallus while in Hera’s womb, he was banished to Earth and raised by shepherds.
Origin
Priapus was worshipped as a deity and also developed a cult that spread to Italy. The probable origin of his followers is in ancient Greece, in the vicinity of Hellespont. The city of Lampsacus in Hellespont is considered to be the birthplace of the god because of the ritual performed there. The followers performed a ritual sacrifice of donkeys that was directly related to Priapus. In art, the god is occasionally depicted in a Persian cap, implying possible non-Greek origins. His influence continued until the apostolic era (33 – 100 A.D.) approximately.
Mythology of Priapus god of wine
Stories of Priapus focus mainly on his disproportionate organ. Statues of the god were placed in the fields to offer protection and, hopefully, produce a bountiful harvest. The statue also represented a symbol of non-entry. Here it implied that intruders would risk violent rape if they crossed the border established at the site. Rape of both men and women was common in ancient times.
It was seen as a form of punishment, but there is no word in ancient Greek or Latin that has exactly the same connotations as the word rape is used today. The god was also the patron of sailors. Sailors used his statue for protection and guidance on the open sea.
In the collection of poems called Priapeia, intended to be written in the classical period, we find a collection of epigrams about the god and his gigantic limb. The poems were believed to have been written by a group of poets who met in the house of Maecenas, a patron of poets. The god boasts of the size of his manhood, of his virility, and warns of the sexual punishment he will inflict for any intrusion into his gardens or fields.
Lotis
Ovid’s Fasti, published in 8 A.D., tells of the god trying to sneak up on the nymph, Lotis, when she falls into a drunken stupor at a celebration. Unfortunately, a donkey warns the party-goers of Priapus’ impending actions and wakes everyone up. She stops him from attacking her and the god slips away. Priapus later kills the donkey, which leads to a popular sacrifice by the city of Lampsacus.
Appearance
The god is depicted as a bearded, muscular man with a huge, red, erect phallus. He is the subject of numerous Roman paintings, including a well-known fresco in which he is seen weighing a bag of money against his phallus. The wall fresco is from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. His gnome-like statues were commonly found in gardens or at road intersections in Rome and Greece. To win the favor of the god, the traveler would have to caress his phallus.
Modern Influence
Priapus appears in many works of modern literature, including those of Vladimir Nabokov, TS Elliot and John Steinbeck. Its influence is also notable in religions. The Temple of St. Priapus, a pagan religion, worships the phallus. Followers believe in worship through group masturbation and treat semen as divine. The Gnostic Catholic Church venerated the god as a saint along with other saints such as Krishna, Mohammed, Merlin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sir Aleister Crowley. In the medical field, the god’s name is used in connection with a condition called Priapism – a permanently erect penis, even when not sexually aroused.
