Priapeia ; sive diversorum poetarum in Priapum lusus or Sportive Epigrams on Priapus by divers poets in English and prose

L. Smithers, R. Burton

The statues of Priapus, the god of fertility, were adorned not only with a huge phallus, but also short and jocose Latin epigrams. For centuries these bowdy verses, attributed to some of the most classical Roman poets such as Martial, Petronius, Catullus, Ovid, Tibullus and Cinna, lay untranslated. This volume reprints the prose and verse translations of those masters of classic erotica, Leonard Smithers and Sir Richard Burton. The fruity Roman sense of humour that they reveal show that mankind's taste for the ribald has remained unchanged over the centuries. (blz. 137: Sodomy)