Note 2 — LETTER FROM PABLO DE JESUS TO GREGORY XIII

Priapus, the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, was the god of fruitfulness of the field and of the herd. Horticulture, vine-growing, goat and sheep-herding, bee-keeping, and even fishing were under his protection. His statues (generally cut out of wood, stained with vermilion) with a club and sickle and a phallic symbol of the creative and fructifying power of nature were usually placed in gardens.—See Seyffert’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 515. ↑