Companion of Bacchus and the Nymphs, to whom lovely Dione gave power over the woodland, whom famed Lesbos and green Thasos obey, whom gold-bearing Lydia worships, whose temple you sited in your very own city of Hypaepa: be with me, O protector of Bacchus, delight of the Dryads, and hear my humble prayer. I do not come to you stained with dark blood, I've not laid hands like some vile enemy on your shrine, but when I was poor, oppressed with want, I committed sin, yet not with my whole body: less guilty he who commits a sin when he's poor. Here's my prayer: unburden my spirit, and forgive the lightest of offences and, whenever some hour of good fortune smiles on me, I'll not suffer your glory to go unhonoured. Sacred one, a horned goat, shall see your altars, the sire of the herd, and a sow's suckling brood of squealers too, in sacrifice. You'll know this year's vintage, and all the young men, tipsy, will tread thrice round your sanctuary, joyously.
Commentarius · Commentary
Encolpius, having lost his virility, kneels on the threshold of a shrine and prays to Priapus. The prayer is in verse and follows every rule of a genuine hymn — and that is exactly how it works.
First the address with its geography: Lesbos, Thasos, the seven-streamed Lydian (the Hermus), the temple at Hypaepa. A list of cult sites is an obligatory part of a hymn (cf. juno-001), and here it is impeccable. Then huc ades, be present — an invocation in due form. Then the negative confession: not drenched in blood, no hand laid on temples. That too is real ritual — on approaching a shrine one declared oneself clean.
And on this faultless foundation stands a request about impotence.
The best line is facinus non toto corpore feci, I committed the offence not with my whole body. The mitigating circumstance is set out anatomically, and the legal precision is nastier than any joke.
Petronius' method is the same as Plautus' with the goddess Treachery (mercurius-006): the parody works not by distortion but by flawless execution of the form. It is funny because everything has been done correctly.
The source presents the text as continuous prose; the division into verses has not been restored on this card.
Fons · Source
AuthorPetronius
WorkSatyricon
Section133
Periodmid 1st c. AD
OccasionEncolpius's prayer to Priapus at the threshold of a shrine — plea for forgiveness and restoration of potency, with vow of sacrifices of goat, piglets and wine festivities
