PRIAPUS, the Greek god of teeming flock and fruitful field. He was unknown to the earliest Greek poets Homer and Hesiod, but in later times his worship prevailed on the fertile coasts of Asia Minor. Lampsacus on the Hellespont, nestling in its vineyards, claimed to be his birthplace. According to the people of Lampsacus he was the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. Having the misfortune, as a child, to be plain-looking, Priapus was abandoned by his heartless parents, but a gentle shepherd who chanced to pass that way found and reared the helpless babe like his own son. As the youthful god grew to manhood he repaid his benefactor by making the flocks and herds to bring forth and multiply. So the simple shepherds worshipped him and brought him offerings of the failings of their flocks,—lambs and goats and heifers, and even, it is said, donkeys. As the god and guardian of gardens, vineyards, and orchards he received sacrifices of fruits and vegetables, and images of him were set up in gardens to frighten birds and thieves. Bees too were his especial care, and he had power to disarm the evil eye. Fishermen prayed to him for an abundant harvest of the sea, and sailors in their sore distress called on him, and he answered and saved them. On many a wave-beaten bluff his image stood and his altar smoked, decked with flowers the earliest of the year, when winter storms were over and summer seas allured the mariner to launch his bark again. In the rites of Dionysus homage was paid to the rural god with mirth and laughter. From Greece he passed to Italy, and continued in his new home to discharge his old functions of garden-god and scarecrow.