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Priapus1 is a city on the sea, and also a harbor. Some say that it was founded by Milesians, who at the same time also colonized Abydus and Proconnesus, whereas others say that it was founded by Cyziceni. It was named after Priapus, who was worshipped there; then his worship was transferred thither from Orneae near Corinth, or else the inhabitants felt an impulse to worship the god because he was called the son of Dionysus and a nymph; for their country is abundantly supplied with the vine, both theirs and the countries which border next upon it, I mean those of the Pariani and the Lampsaceni. At any rate, Xerxes gave Lampsacus to Themistocles to supply him with wine. But it was by people of later times that Priapus was declared a god, for even Hesiod does not know of him; and he resembles the Attic deities Orthane, Conisalus, Tychon, and others like them.
1 On the site of Priapus, see Leaf, p. 73.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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