Priapus was the Greek and Roman phallic deity, often presiding, in the form of a statue or statuette, over gardens. His most characteristic feature was his prominent phallus. Here the speaker asks him for his secret (1–6), then Priapus responds (9–72), after which the frame returns and we are apprised of a series of contexts for the erotodidactic discourse the speaker has elicited from the willing godhead. This poem is a miniature version of what Ovid was to do (with many a nod to this text) in his erotodidactic poetry, the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris.
