Priapus

This is Priapus, Ancient Greek god of the male reproductive power and fertility and the fertility of nature in general. Allegedly he originated in Hellespont from where his cult moved to the Balkans and then throughout Greek and later Roman world...

Priapus was a peasant god, god of shepherds, farmers and beekeepers...For Classical Greek city dwellers he was apparently "a bit of a joke"...What else could be expected from the city people who lost touch with nature...

The Olimpians definitely couldn't stick him. They refused to allow him to live on Mount Olympus and threw him down to Earth...Which is where the archaic god of fertility should be living anyway...

It is interesting that such an obviously single role god doesn't have a name that denotes his function: fertility...The official etymology says: "Latin Priapus, from Ancient Greek Πρίαπος (Príapos), the origin of his name is unknown. The name may have originated from the Hellespont, the birthplace of his cult“

I want here to thank Aleksandar Miladinović who alerted me the fact that maybe the name of Priapus actually does denote his function. Just not in Greek. Or Latin...

Have a look at this:

Sanskrit: प्रिय (priya) – love, kindness, favour, pleasure, beloved, dear, liked, favourite, wanted, lover, husband
Serbian (Pan-Slavic): prija - what is nice, good, beneficial, pleasant
Avestan: 𐬟𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀‎ (friia) - dear, beloved, friend, well-wisher
Germanic: *frijōną - to love, to free

From PIE "preyH-" (to love, to please)

Sanskrit: याभ (yAbha) – to have a sexual intercourse
Serbian (Pan-Slavic): jeb (yeb) - to have a sexual intercourse
Ancient Greek: οἴφω (oíphō) - to have a sexual intercourse

From PIE "h₃yebʰ-" (to penetrate, to enter, to copulate)

Sanskrit: priya+yAbha=prijaba=priap - enjoy+sexual intercourse=love=procreation=fertility
Serbian: prija+jeb=prijeb=priap - enjoy+sexual intercourse=love=procreation=fertility

I presume this is quite suiteble name for a god of fertility with a giant erection...

Considering that Ancient Greek doesn't have a word for love based on the PIE root "priHós" the name Πρίαπος (Príapos) could not be of Greek origin...

Considering that only Slavic and Sanskrit have both words required to create Priapus's name, it is one either Slavic or Indian culture where we should look for the origin of Priapus...

We know about Siva lingam worship...

It could be tempting to propose that the name came to Greece from India after the Alexander's campaigns there. But I don't know of any Indian deity whose name sounds like Priap...And the dates don't match...

The first extant mention of Priapus is in the eponymous comedy Priapus, written in the 4th century BC by Xenarchus. He was already taking the piss out of Priapus at the beginning of the 4th century BC...

Greeks in Lampsacus in Asia Minor, where the cult of Priapus is said to have originated, already minted Gold staters with the ivy-wreathed head of Dionysus/Priapus between 360–340BC.

Alexander was not born until 356BC and he died during the Indian campaign in 323BC. So I don't think we should look at India as the place from where Priapus came to Greece wielding his giant dick...

So what's left?

A giant coincidence?

One last thing. Did I mention that the PIE root "h₃yebʰ-" which apparently "originally meant "to enter, penetrate" with a semantic narrowing to "copulate" can in Slavic languages be broken into "je" + "bo" = her + pierce, stab, penetrate = copulate....