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MINOR POETRY
the author of the Priapea possesses this skill in abundance. He is original,
elegant, and witty, in command of different metres, adept at varying and
conflating motifs, and subtle in the planning of his book as a whole. These
qualities secure him a high rank amongst Latin epigrammatists.
Priapus figures somewhat tenuously in Greek poetry, and on occasion as an
object of genuine cult. In Roman poetry he is almost exclusively associated
with custodianship of gardens and with sexual matters, and easily lends himself
to become an object of banter and ribaldry. He is treated light-heartedly or at
best semi-seriously: so Hor. Sat. 1.8, Tib. 1.4, [Virg.] Priap. 1—3, Copa 23—5.
From Martial he obtains a number of pieces (in particular 6.16, 49, 72, 73,
8.40), but they are very limited in thematic range and development. In contrast
the book of Priapea offers a remarkable diversity of themes, which includes
curses (e.g. 78), mockery (e.g. 12), riddles (e.g. 54), dedications to Priapus
(e.g. 27), comparison of Priapus with other gods (e.g. 9), Priapus turning
a blind eye (64), Priapus in despair (26), and Priapean interpretation of Homer
(68). Amongst the characters the author sketches or derides we find prostitutes,
pathics, the amorous but unamiable, poets, and respectable matrons. He can
maintain suspense, even though we anticipate some obscene conclusion, he
can deftly move into parody (e.g. 52. 11—12), and he can produce a neat pun
(e.g. 55.6) or delightfully unexpected turn of phrase (e.g. 37. 13-14). And
he enlivens hackneyed material, such as dedication of offerings, by ingenious
novelty of treatment: conspicuously so in 37. The book is a tour deforce and
intended to be such: it shows the multiplicity of variations admitted by a subject
at first sight extremely restricted.
Skilful though the author is in presenting Priapus from new aspects, items
very similar in conception naturally occur in a corpus of eighty poems. Hence,
to avoid tedium, he varies length, changes metre, and disperses, collocates,
and interweaves his themes as they correspond or contrast. This is all so
adroitly done that the overall planning appears only on close analysis. And it
is not overdone: there is no obsession with patterns here. His artistry has
enabled the poet to explore all the possibilities of his subject without wearying
his reader. Perhaps his success deterred Martial from making much of Priapus,
but, if that seems contrary to what we know of Martial, who might have been
expected to take up the challenge, our author could well be the later.
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