Pompeii fresco depicts hapless Priapus with a painful condition

Maybe Priapus, the ancient Greek and Roman god with the enormous phallus, was not so lucky after all. An Italian doctor and researcher says one of the most famous paintings of the rustic divinity depicts the god with severe phimosis—a painful, unhygienic condition where the foreskin of the penis cannot be retracted. To make matters worse for poor Priapus, the goddess Hera laid a mighty curse on him to make him ugly, impotent and foul of mind.

A fresco in the House of Vettii in the ancient ruins of Pompeii shows the god weighing his huge member against a bag of gold. In Greek mythology, Priapus was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. He is usually depicted with an oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism, a painful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state.