Priapus in Shakespeare: From Luxuriant Gardens to Luxurious Brothels

Abstract

Priapus is a fertility god, the protector of livestock and gardens, and more particularly of vineyards and orchards. Still, as the fresco in Pompeii shows, he is also the master of luxuriant gardens, as well as a statue often to be found in luxurious brothels. Priapus in William Shakespeare is consequently referred to in two ways: through Ovid certainly, but also, more generally, through folklore, fertility rites and worship forms. Bottom's encounter with Titania might be considered as a new humoristic version of Priapus' attempt to violate Lotis, an idea which makes sense in a play filled with distorted Ovidian allusions, and actual or would-be rapists. 'Cock' is here a perverted version of 'God', but since Ophelia explicitly talks about sexual intercourse, she sounds very rude. The Bawd identifies Priapus more as a fertility god than as a symbol of lechery. One of Rocco Coronato's articles paved the way for analyses tracking implicit incarnations of the god in Shakespeare's canon.