nd predictions; but this is, perhaps, founded
on the etymology of his name, for {phonein} in Greek, and _Fari_ in
Latin, of which it has been supposed a derivative, signify to _speak_;
and it was, perhaps, for the same reason, they called his wife _Fauna_,
that is, _Fatidica_, _prophetess_. Faunus is described by Ovid with
horns on his head, and crowned with the pine tree.

PRIAPUS is said, by some, to have been the son of Bacchus and Nais, or
as others will have it, of Chi{)o}ne; but the generality of authors
agree, that he was son of Bacchus and Venus. He was born at
Lamps{)a}chus, a city of Mysia, at the mouth of the Hellespont, but in
so deformed a state, that his mother, through shame, abandoned him. On
his growing up to maturity, the inhabitants of the place banished him
their territories, on account of his vicious habits; but being soon
after visited with an epidemic disease, the Lampsacans consulted the
oracle of Dod{=o}na, and Pri{=a}pus was in consequence recalled. Temples
were erected to him as the tutelar deity of vineyards and gardens, to
defend them from thieves and from birds.

He is usually represented naked and obscene, with a stern countenance,
matted hair, crowned with garden herbs, and holding a wooden sword, or
scythe, whilst his body terminates in a shapeless trunk. His figures are
generally erected in gardens and orchards to serve as scarecrows.
Pri{=a}pus held a pruning-hook in his hands, when he had hands, for he
was sometimes nothing more than a mere log of wood, as Martial somewhat
humorously calls him. Indeed the Roman poets in general seem to have
looked on him as a ridiculous god, and are all ready enough either to
despise or abuse him.

Trimalchio, in his ridiculous feasts described by Petronius, had a
figure of this god to be held up during his dessert: it was made of
paste, and, as Horace observes on another occasion, that he owed all his
divinity to the carpenter, Petronius seems to hint that he was wholly
obliged for it to the pastry cook in this. Some mythologists make the
birth of Pri{=a}pus allude to that radical moisture which supports all
vegetable productions, and which is produced by Bacchus and Venus, that
is, the solar heat, and the fluid whence Venus is said to have sprung.
Some affirm that he was the same with the Baal of the Phoenicians,
mentioned in scripture.

ARISTAEUS, son of Apollo, by the nymph Cyrene, daughter of Hypseus, king
of the Lap{)i}thae, was born in Lybi