A contemplative Priapus, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite at the Getty Villa exhibit "Buried by Vesuvius" through October 28, 2019

A contemplative Priapus, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite at the Getty Villa exhibit "Buried by Vesuvius" through October 28, 2019.
In Greek mythology, Priapus was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia as well as the patron of merchant sailing. Although Priapus is usually depicted in erotic imagery, the bust of the god found in the Villa dei Papiri portrays a much different aspect of the deity and was displayed alongside busts of poets and philosophers. Originally worshiped by Greek colonists in Lampsacus in Asia Minor, the cult of Priapus spread to mainland Greece and eventually to Italy during the 3rd century BCE. Lucian tells us that in Bithynia, Priapus was accounted as a warlike god, a rustic tutor to the infant Ares. Pausanius says this god is worshiped where goats and sheep pasture or there are swarms of bees - but by the people of Lampsacus he is more revered than any other god, being called by them a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. Long after the fall of Rome and the rise of Christianity as late as the 13th century CE, Priapus continued to be invoked as a symbol of health and fertility.



Images: Bronze Bust of Priapus found in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. Images courtesy of Allan Gluck.

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