I am the proud owner of two garden gnomes in my front yard of 5-6 m2.
The Romans had their garden gnomes too: statues of Priapus. This originally Greek
god is a dwarf with an oversized membrum
virile. Romans had different views on sexuality than we have, as any reader
of Roman comedies, Ovid Catull and Martial knows. Apart from that the male
organ had – as in many cultures – magico-religious connotations. In India you
will find statues of the lingam of
Shiva everywhere. This does not mean that India has liberal thoughts about sexuality,
as is sadly proved by the high number of rapes and the consequent shame for the
women involved. What the lingam
refers to is the power of Shiva and its connotations are not erotic, but
religious. In classical Greece the herma,
a statue of Hermes, often roughly carved with just a head and the penis. These
statues where placed at crossings, borders and at the entrances of houses in
order to ward off thieves. So the function of the male organ is apotropaic and
the statues of Priapus had this function too: they were intended to keep
thieves away from the garden. I wonder if there was any Roman who actually
believed this…
The carmina priapea is a
collection of 95 epigrams dedicated to this god and many of these epigrams are presented
as been written on the statues of Priapus. It is very possible that at least
some of them were. The poems are from the classical period, but the author is
unknown – or authors as scholars are divided on this issue. Some attribute this
corpus to Ovid, but more likely is an intelligent editor who also wrote various
poems himself (so E.M. O’Connor as quoted by Christiane Goldberg, whose
commentary I have used).
For the poets of this collection the emphasis lays wholly on the
erotic aspect: they are frivolous as is stated in the introductory poem. The
Romans were no religious virtuosi, to use a term by the German sociologist Max
Weber, and Priapus was for these poets just a good reason to write erotic
poetry. These poems are not so much interesting in themselves, but they give a
good insight in Roman sexual morality. For understandable reasons not much
attention has been paid to this collection in the past, but from the sixties
onwards they have intensively studied by classical scholars and a number of commentaries,
translations and studies have been published.
I almost forgot to tell you: my garden gnomes are decently dressed!
Carmina Priapea
[I]
Carminis incompti lusus lecture procaces,
conveniens Latio pone supercilium.
non soror hoc habitat Phoebi, non Vesta sacello,
nec quae de patrio vertice nata dea est,
sed ruber hortorum custos, membrosior aequo,
qui tectum nullis vestibus inguen habet.
aut igitur tunicam parti praetende tegendae,
aut quibus hanc oculis aspicis, ista lege.
incomptus: `uncombed’, inelegant, artless
lecture: vocative of the future participle
procax: frivolous
conveniens Latio: normal for Latium (= Rome)
supercilium: litt.: `eyebrow’, hence: haughtiness
soror Phoebi = Diana
sacellum: shrine
de patrio vertice nata dea = Minerva (who sprang out of the head of Jupiter). All three goddesses
are virgins.
rubor: red is the colour for danger and warning.
membrosior aequo: with a bigger male organ than appropriate
inguen, inis (n): private parts
praetendo: spread before
aut quibus hanc oculis
aspicis, ista lege: or with the eyes you look at
this part (hanc partem). read this!
[IV]
Obscaenas rigido deo tabellas
dicans ex Elephantidos libellis
dat donum Lalage rogatque, temptes,
si pictas opus edat ad figuras.
Obscaenas tabellas ex
Elephantidos libellis = obscene pictures from the
book of Elephantis (or Elephantine). This book contained all kinds of erotic
pictures. These pictures served as examples for erotic paintings on walls, as
is well known from Pompeii and Herculaneum. As for Elephantidios (a Greek
genitive), it can refer to Elephantis,
a name for an hetaera or to the Egyptian palce Elephantine, known for its
prostitution.
dicare: to dedicate (but most manuscripts have ducens)
Lalage: name of an hetaerae
si pictas opus edat ad figuras = si opus edat ad pictas
figuras `that she can turn the pictures into work)’ i.e. she is asking
Priapus for clients.
[V]
Quam puero legem fertur dixisse Priapus,
versibus his infra scripta duobus erit:
'quod meus hortus habet sumas inpune licebit,
si dederis nobis quod tuos hortus habet.'
versibus his infra scripta duobus erit:
'quod meus hortus habet sumas inpune licebit,
si dederis nobis quod tuos hortus habet.'
fertur dixisse Priapus: Priapus is said to have told
inpune: unpunished
sumo: to take (away)
licebit: it will be allowed. Often forms of this impersonal verb have no syntactical
relation to the rest of the sentence: translate as: `you are free to take away
etc.’
[XXII]
Femina si furtum faciet mihi virve puerve,
haec cunnum, caput hic praebeat, ille nates.
furtum facio: to steal
cunnum: the female pudenda
natis, -is (but more common in the plural nates):
buttocks
Translations (note that poem 1 in this post is the introduction poem
in this link):
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