Priapus: Greek God of Fertility and Gardens

The Story of Priapus

Priapus was a rustic god of fertility, gardens, livestock and vegetables. He is most often called a son of Aphrodite and Dionysus, though some tellings name Hermes or another father. The story goes that Hera, disapproving of Aphrodite, cursed the child before birth, so he was born with an oversized body and his mother abandoned him.

He was raised among shepherds and grew into a god of the countryside. In one story he crept toward the sleeping nymph Lotis during a festival, but a donkey brayed, everyone woke up, and Priapus fled in embarrassment. Ever since, the donkey was linked with him and was offered to him in sacrifice.

His main place of worship was Lampsacus on the Hellespont, and from there his cult spread across the Greek and Roman world. Farmers set rough wooden statues of him in gardens, vineyards and orchards, often painted red and holding a sickle, to scare away thieves and birds. Roman poets wrote a whole collection of comic verses in his honor, and he remained a humorous, earthy figure rather than a grand one.