Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Then with green vine-shoot and the luscious bunch,
  2. And glaucous olive-tree in bitter cold.
  3. The dainty she-goat from my pasture bears
  4. Her milk-distended udders to the town:
  5. Out of my sheep-cotes ta'en the fatted lamb
  6. Sends home with silver right-hand heavily charged;
  7. And, while its mother lows, the tender calf
  8. Before the temples of the Gods must bleed.
  9. Hence of such Godhead (traveller!), stand in awe;
  10. Best it befits thee off to keep thy hands.