in Pagan worship, the son of Bacchus and Venus, who presided over gardens and the most indecent actions. He was particularly adored at Lampacus, a city at the mouth of the Hellespont, said to be the place of his birth; and his image was placed in gardens to defend them from thieves and birds destructive to fruit. He was usually represented naked, with a stern countenance, matted hair, and holding either a wooden sword or sickle in his hand, and with a monstrous privity; from whence downward his body ended in a shapeless trunk. The sacrifice offered to this obscene deity was the ass; either on account of the natural uncomeliness of this animal, and its propensity to venery, or from the disappointment which Priapus met with on attempting the chastity of Veita, while that goddess was asleep, when she escaped the injury designed her by her being awakened by the braying of old Silenus's ass.