PRIAPUS

According to the usual account, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, a god of the fruitfulness of the field and of the herds. Horticulture, vine-growing, goat and sheep-breeding, bee-keeping, and even fishing, were supposed to be under his protection. The original seat of his worship lay in the towns of Asia Minor, situated on the Hellespont, especially Lampsacus. From here it afterwards spread over Greece and Italy. His statues were usually placed in gardens, generally in the form of rude hermoe cut out of wood, stained with vermilion, with a club and sickle and a phallic symbol of the creative and fructifying powers of nature. The sacrifices offered to him included asses, as well as the first-fruits of the garden and the field.