The Tarocco Erotico dei Giardini di Priapo (Erotic Tarot of the Gardens of Priapus) is by quite some way the most explicitly sexual of all the many tarot packs created by Amerigo Folchi.

In the accompanying booklet, Folchi explains his interest in Priapus thus:
     This deck is intended as a grotesque satire dedicated to the erotic and hyperphallic universe of the Priapean myth. If Eros symbolises love as pure sentiment, Priapus (his brother on his mother’s side) symbolises its purely material effects and aspects. Aphrodite bore Priapus, a monstrous child, with a very long tongue, an enormous belly, and a phallus that grew even more enormous. His mother repudiated him by abandoning him. The child was welcomed and raised by some shepherds who, from his particular phallic characteristic and what was hermaphroditic in him, assumed good omens for the fertility of their fields and the fecundity of their animals. This odd and good-natured god, to whom the donkey was consecrated, became a tutelary deity of the Roman countryside and gardens. Contrary to other deities such as Pan or Satyr, Priapus has completely human features, having no horns, hooves or tail.

The many naked participants in this pack are clearly enjoying themselves in a wide variety of ways. Folchi uses the phallic wands, brimming wine glasses, sharp swords and sex toy disks to emphasise the humour and playfulness associated with Priapus, while the major arcana cards maintain a lightness and joy not found in many tarot decks.


The Tarocco Erotico dei Giardini di Priapo was published by Roberto Meiattini Editore in a numbered limited edition of 1,500 sets.