Whatever interpretation we may give to these legends of Bacchus and Priapus, this much at any rate may be gathered from them without fear of contradiction, that affections of the male genitals at the time when they first became prevalent were taken to be the original cause of the introduction of Phallic worship,—in connection with the defloration of virgins mentioned in § 4. This is not without importance as bearing on the antiquity of the well-known Indian legend of the Lingam-ritual; and at the same time shows clearly that those affections of the genital organs must have borne a malignant character that men could not explain to themselves otherwise than as proceeding from the wrath of a Deity, a deity who on the other hand alone possessed the power to remove these ills. Another factor of great importance in connection with affections of the genitals in Antiquity, and of all the greater importance in as much as it leads us to the conclusion that resort was had for their cure not to human but to divine assistance, partly indeed depends on reasons which we shall discuss more exactly later on. However these reasons may in part be gathered at once from the following _supremely important_ poem in the Priapeia[87], to which _de Jurgenew_ first called attention in his Dissertation, p. 11, but without communicating it in its entirety: VOTI SOLUTIO. Cur pictum memori sit in tabella Membrum quaeritis unde procreamur? _Cum penis mihi forte laesus esset, Chirurgique manum miser timerem, Diis me legitimis, nimisque magnis_ Ut Phoebo puta, filioque Phoebi _Curatum dare mentulam verebar_. Huic dixi, fer opem, Priape, parti, Cuius tu, pater, ipse par videris:[88] Qua salva _sine sectione_ facta, Ponetur tibi picta, quam levaris, Parque consimilisque concolorque. Promisit fore: mentulam movit Pro nutu deus et rogata fecit. PAYING A VOW. (Why, you ask, is portrayed on the tablet the member whereby we are begotten? _When, as it befell, my penis was damaged, and like a wretched coward I dreaded the Surgeon’s hand, I was afraid to entrust myself and the cure of my organ to the great official gods, that were too high for me_, such I mean as Phoebus and Phoebus’ son. “To the member, I said, do thou, Priapus, give aid,—the member that thou art fashioned in the likeness of[88]. Then when it has been healed _without the knife_, a painted image of the part thou has relieved shall be dedicated to thee,—a match, a perfect match in form and in hue.” Thus he made his vow; the god nodded his penis in token of assent, and answered his prayers.)