Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearerThe maiden who carried the basket filled with fruits at the Dionysia in honour of Bacchus. come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright.The emblem of the fecundity of nature; it consisted of a representation, generally grotesquely exaggerated, of the male genital organs; the phallophori crowned with violets and ivy and their faces shaded with green foliage, sang improvised airs, call Phallics, full of obscenity and suggestive double entendres.

Daughter, set down the basket and let us begin the sacrifice.

Mother, hand me the ladle, that I may spread the sauce on the cake.

It is well! Oh, mighty Bacchus, it is with joy that, freed from military duty, I and all mine perform this solemn rite and offer thee this sacrifice; grant that I may keep the rural Dionysia without hindrance and that this truce of thirty years may be propitious for me.

Come, my child, carry the basket gracefully and with a grave, demure face. Happy he, who shall be your possessor and embrace you so firmly at dawn,The most propitious moment for Love's gambols, observes the scholiast. that you belch wind like a weasel. Go forward, and have a care they don't snatch your jewels in the crowd.

Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace.Married women did not join in the processions. Forward!