Inancient Greek religion andmythology,Pan (/pæn/;[2]Ancient Greek:Πάν,romanized: Pán) is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks,rustic music andimpromptus, and companion of thenymphs.[3] He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as afaun orsatyr. With his homeland in rusticArcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens, and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring.[1]
InRoman religion and myth, Pan was frequently identified withFaunus, a nature god who was the father ofBona Dea, sometimes identified asFauna; he was also closely associated withSilvanus, due to their similar relationships with woodlands, andInuus, a vaguely defined deity also sometimes identified with Faunus.[4][5][6] In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Pan became a significant figure inthe Romantic movement of Western Europe and also in the twentieth-centuryNeopagan movement.[7]
Many modern scholars consider Pan to be derived from the reconstructedProto-Indo-European god*Péh₂usōn, whom they believe to have been an important pastoral deity[8] (*Péh₂usōn shares an origin with the modern English word "pasture").[9] TheRigvedic psychopomp godPushan (from PIE zero grade*Ph₂usōn) is believed to be a cognate of Pan. The connection between Pan and Pushan, both of whom are associated with goats, was first identified in 1924 by the German scholarHermann Collitz.[10][11] The familiar form of the name Pan is contracted from earlierΠάων, derived from the root *peh₂- (guard, watch over).[12] According to Edwin L. Brown, the namePan is probably acognate with theGreek word ὀπάων "companion".[13]
In his earliest appearance in literature,Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. 78, Pan is associated with amother goddess, perhapsRhea orCybele; Pindar refers to maidens worshippingCybele and Pan near the poet's house inBoeotia.[14]
The worship of Pan began inArcadia which was always the principal seat of his worship.[citation needed] Arcadia was a district ofmountain people, culturally separated from other Greeks. Arcadian hunters used toscourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase.[15]
Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usuallycaves orgrottoes such as the one on the north slope of theAcropolis of Athens. These are often referred to as the Cave of Pan. Although there were exceptions like the Sanctuary of Pan on theNeda River gorge in the southwesternPeloponnese, the ruins of which survive to this day, the Temple of Pan atApollonopolis Magna inancient Egypt[16] and the sanctuary on the mount Homole inThessaly.[17]In the fourth century BC Pan was depicted on the coinage ofPantikapaion.[18]
Archaeologists, while excavating aByzantine church of around 400 AD inBanyas, discovered in the walls of the church an altar of the god Pan with a Greek inscription, dating back to the second or third century AD. The inscription reads, "Atheneon son of Sosipatros ofAntioch is dedicating the altar to the god Pan Heliopolitanus. He built the altar using his own personal money in fulfillment of a vow he made."[19]
Aegocerus (Ancient Greek:Αἰγόκερως,romanized: Aigókerōs,lit. 'goat-horned') was an epithet of Pan descriptive of his figure with the horns of a goat.[22]
Lyterius (Ancient Greek:Λυτήριος), meaningDeliverer. There was a sanctuary atTroezen, and he had this epithet because he was believed during a plague to have revealed in dreams the proper remedy against the disease.[23]
Numerous different parentages are given for Pan by different authors.[26] According to theHomeric Hymn to Pan, he is the child ofHermes and an (unnamed) daughter of Dryops.[27] Several authors state that Pan is the son of Hermes and "Penelope", apparentlyPenelope, the wife ofOdysseus:[28] according toHerodotus, this was the version which was believed by the Greeks,[29] and later sources such asCicero andHyginus call Pan the son of Mercury and Penelope.[30] In some early sources such asPindar (c. 518 – c. 438 BC) andHecataeus (c. 550 – c. 476 BC), he is called the child of Penelope byApollo.[31] Apollodorus records two distinct divinities named Pan; one who was the son of Hermes and Penelope, and the other who had Zeus and a nymph named Hybris for his parents, and was the mentor of Apollo.[32]Pausanias records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return.[33] Other sources (Duris of Samos; the Vergilian commentatorServius) report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result.[34] This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν).[35] According to Smith'sDictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Apollodorus has his parents as Hermes and Oeneis, while scholia on Theocritus have Aether and Oeneis.[36]
Like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than theOlympians, if it is true that he gaveArtemis her hunting dogs and taught the secret of prophecy toApollo. Pan might be multiplied as thePans (Burkert 1985, III.3.2; Ruck and Staples, 1994, p. 132[37]) or thePaniskoi. Kerenyi (p. 174) notes fromscholia thatAeschylus inRhesus distinguished between two Pans, one the son of Zeus and twin ofArcas, and one a son ofCronus. "In the retinue ofDionysos, or in depictions of wild landscapes, there appeared not only a great Pan, but also little Pans, Paniskoi, who played the same part as theSatyrs".
Herodotus wrote that according to Egyptian chronology, Pan was the most ancient of the gods; but according to the version in which Pan was the son of Hermes and Penelope, he was born only eight hundred years before Herodotus, and thus after the Trojan war.[i] Herodotus concluded that that would be when the Greeks first learnt the name of Pan.[38]
The goat-godAegipan was nurtured byAmalthea with the infantZeus in Crete. In Zeus's battle withTyphon, Aegipan andHermes stole back Zeus's "sinews" that Typhon had hidden away in theCorycian Cave.[39] Pan aided his foster-brother in thebattle with the Titans by letting out a horrible screech and scattering them in terror. According to some traditions,Aegipan was the son of Pan, rather than his father.
TheconstellationCapricornus is traditionally depicted as asea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail.[ii] A myth reported as "Egyptian" inHyginus'sPoetic Astronomy says that whenAegipan – that is, Pan in his goat-god aspect[40] – was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dived into the riverNile; the parts above water remained a goat, but those submerged changed into a fish. Admiring Pan's ruse, Zeus placed his image amongst the stars.[41]
Pan is famous for his sexual prowess and is often depicted with aphallus.Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learningmasturbation from his father,Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds.[42]
There was a legend that Pan seduced the moon goddessSelene, deceiving her with a sheep's fleece.[43]
One of the famous myths of Pan involves the origin of hispan flute, fashioned from lengths of hollow reed.Syrinx was a lovely wood-nymph of Arcadia, daughter ofLadon, the river-god. As she was returning from the hunt one day, Pan met her. To escape from his importunities, the fair nymph ran away and didn't stop to hear his compliments. He pursued fromMount Lycaeum until she came to her sisters who immediately changed her into a reed. When the air blew through the reeds, it produced a plaintive melody. The god, still infatuated, took some of the reeds, because he could not identify which reed she became, and cut seven pieces (or according to some versions, nine), joined them side by side in gradually decreasing lengths, and formed the musical instrument bearing the name of his beloved Syrinx. Henceforth, Pan was seldom seen without it.
Echo was a nymph who was a great singer and dancer and scorned the love of any man. This angered Pan, alecherous god, and he instructed his followers to kill her. Echo was torn to pieces and spread all over Earth. The goddess of the Earth,Gaia, received the pieces of Echo, whose voice remains repeating the last words of others. In some versions, Echo and Pan had two children:Iambe andIynx. In other versions, Pan had fallen in love with Echo, but she scorned the love of any man but was enraptured byNarcissus. As Echo was cursed byHera to only be able to repeat words that had been said by someone else, she could not speak for herself. She followed Narcissus to a pool, where he fell in love with his own reflection and changed into anarcissus flower. Echo wasted away, but her voice could still be heard in caves and other such similar places.
Pan also loved a nymph namedPitys, who was turned into apine tree to escape him.[44] In another version, Pan and the north wind godBoreas clashed over the lovely Pitys. Boreas uprooted all the trees to impress her, but Pan laughed and Pitys chose him. Boreas then chased her and threw her off a cliff resulting in her death.Gaia pitied Pitys and turned her into a pine tree.[45]
According to some traditions, Pan taughtDaphnis, a rustic son of Hermes, how to play the pan-pipes, and also fell in love with him.[46][47]
Women who had had sexual relations with several men were referred to as "Pan girls."[48]
Disturbed in his secluded afternoon naps, Pan's angry shout inspiredpanic (panikon deima) in lonely places.[49][50] Following the Titans' assault onOlympus, Pan claimed credit for the victory of the gods because he had frightened the attackers. In theBattle of Marathon (490 BC), it is said that Pan favored the Athenians and so inspired panic in the hearts of their enemies, the Persians.[51]
"Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan's pipe" reads the caption for this depiction of Pan byWalter CraneRepresentations of Pan on 4th century BC gold and silverPantikapaion coins
In two late Roman sources,Hyginus[52] andOvid,[53] Pan is substituted for the satyrMarsyas in the theme of a musical competition (agon), and the punishment by flaying is omitted.
Pan once had the audacity to compare his music with that ofApollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of thelyre, to a trial of skill.Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen to judge. Pan blew on his pipes and gave great satisfaction with his rustic melody to himself and to his faithful follower,Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. Midas dissented and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer and turned Midas' ears into those of adonkey.[54]
ThePanes were Pan-like spirits that protected goat-herds and sheep flocks.[55] According toNonnus in his epic poemDionysiaca, thePaneides were twelve youngPanes "begotten of the one ancestral Pan, their mountain-ranging father": Kelaineus, Argennos, Aigikoros, Eugeneios, Daphoineus, Omester, Phobos, Philamnos, Glaukos, Xanthos, Argos, and Phorbas.Agreus andNomios, additionalPanes mentioned by Nonnus, were the sons ofHermes and twonymphs: Agreus's mother wasSose, and Nomios's,Penelope. These Pans all helpedDionysus in his war against the Indians.[56]
Pan Sybarios, worshipped in the Greek colony ofSybaris in Italy, wasconceived when Krathis, a shepherd-boy,copulated with a she-goat.[57]
InPseudo-Plutarch'sDe defectu oraculorum ("The Obsolescence of Oracles"),[58] Pan is the only Greek god who actually dies. During the reign ofTiberius (AD 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the Greek island ofPaxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reachPalodes,[59] take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead." Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments.
Christian apologists, includingEusebius of Caesarea, have long made much of Plutarch's story of the death of Pan. Due to the word "all" in Greek also being "pan," a pun was made that "all demons" had perished.[60]
InRabelais'Fourth Book of Pantagruel (sixteenth century), the GiantPantagruel, after recollecting the tale as told by Plutarch, opines that the announcement was actually about the death ofJesus Christ, which did take place at about the same time (towards the end ofTiberius' reign), noting the aptness of the name: "for he may lawfully be said in the Greek tongue to be Pan, since he is our all. For all that we are, all that we live, all that we have, all that we hope, is him, by him, from him, and in him."[61] In this interpretation, Rabelais was followingGuillaume Postel in hisDe orbis terrae concordia.[62]
The nineteenth-century visionaryAnne Catherine Emmerich claimed that the phrase "the Great Pan" was a demonic epithet forJesus Christ, and that "Thamus, or Tramus" was a watchman in the port ofNicaea, who, at the time of other events surrounding Christ's death, was commissioned to spread this message, which was later garbled "in repetition."[63]
In modern times,G. K. Chesterton has repeated and amplified the significance of the "death" of Pan, suggesting that with the "death" of Pan came the advent of theology. To this effect, Chesterton claimed, "It is said truly in a sense that Pan died because Christ was born. It is almost as true in another sense that men knew that Christ was born because Pan was already dead. A void was made by the vanishing world of the whole mythology of mankind, which would have asphyxiated like a vacuum if it had not been filled with theology."[64][65][66]
In more modern times, some have suggested a possible naturalistic explanation for the myth. For example,Robert Graves (The Greek Myths) reported a suggestion that had been made by Salomon Reinach[67] and expanded by James S. Van Teslaar[68] that the sailors actually heard the excited shouts of the worshipers ofTammuz,Θαμούς πανμέγας τέθνηκε (Thamoús panmégas téthnēke, "All-great Tammuz is dead!"), and misinterpreted them as a message directed to an Egyptian sailor named 'Thamus': "Great Pan is Dead!" Van Teslaar explains, "[i]n its true form the phrase would have probably carried no meaning to those on board who must have been unfamiliar with the worship of Tammuz which was a transplanted, and for those parts, therefore, an exotic custom."[69] Certainly, whenPausanias toured Greece about a century after Plutarch, he found Pan's shrines, sacred caves and sacred mountains still very much frequented. However, a naturalistic explanation might not be needed. For example,William Hansen[70] has shown that the story is quite similar to a class of widely known tales known asFairies Send a Message.
AncientRoman mosaic showing a horned, goat-legged Pan holding ashepherd's crook. Much ofSatan's traditional iconography is apparently derived from Pan.
Representations of Pan have influenced conventional popular depictions ofthe Devil.[74]
In the late-eighteenth century, interest in Pan revived among liberal scholars.Richard Payne Knight discussed Pan in hisDiscourse on the Worship of Priapus (1786) as a symbol of creation expressed through sexuality. "Pan is represented pouring water upon the organ of generation; that is, invigorating the active creative power by the prolific element."[75]
John Keats's "Endymion" (1818) opens with a festival dedicated to Pan where a stanzaic hymn is sung in praise of him. Keats drew most of his account of Pan's activities from the Elizabethan poets. Douglas Bush notes, "The goat-god, the tutelary divinity of shepherds, had long been allegorized on various levels, from Christ to 'Universall Nature' (Sandys); here he becomes the symbol of the romantic imagination, of supra-mortal knowledge.'"[76]
In the late-nineteenth century Pan became an increasingly common figure in literature and art. Patricia Merivale states that between 1890 and 1926 there was an "astonishing resurgence of interest in the Pan motif".[77] He appears in poetry, in novels and children's books, and is referenced in the name of the characterPeter Pan.[78] In thePeter Pan stories, Peter represents a golden age of pre-civilisation in both the minds of very young children (before enculturation and education), and in the natural world outside the influence of humans. Peter Pan's character is both charming and selfish - emphasizing our cultural confusion about whether human instincts are natural and good, or uncivilised and bad.J. M. Barrie describes Peter as 'a betwixt and between', part animal and part human, and uses this device to explore many issues of human and animal psychology within the Peter Pan stories.[79]
Arthur Machen's 1894 novellaThe Great God Pan uses the god's name in a simile about the whole world being revealed as it really is: "seeing the Great God Pan". The novella is considered by many (includingStephen King) as being one of the greatest horror-stories ever written.[80]
In an article inHellebore magazine,Melissa Edmundson argues that women writers from the nineteenth century used the figure of Pan "to reclaim agency in texts that explored female empowerment and sexual liberation". InEleanor Farjeon's poem "Pan-Worship", the speaker tries to summon Pan to life after feeling "a craving in me", wishing for a "spring-tide" that will replace the stagnant "autumn" of the soul. A dark version of Pan's seductiveness appears inMargery Lawrence'sRobin's Rath, both giving and taking life and vitality.
Pan is the eponymous "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the seventh chapter ofKenneth Grahame'sThe Wind in the Willows (1908). Grahame's Pan, unnamed but clearly recognisable, is a powerful but secretive nature-god, protector of animals, who casts a spell of forgetfulness on all those he helps. He makes a brief appearance to help Rat and Mole recover the Otter's lost son Portly.
The goat-footed god entices villagers to listen to his pipes as if in a trance inLord Dunsany's novelThe Blessing of Pan (1927). Although the god does not appear within the story, his energy invokes the younger folk of the village to revel in the summer twilight, while the vicar of the village is the only person worried about the revival of worship of the old pagan god.
The story of Pan is the inspiration for the first movement inBenjamin Britten's work for solo oboe,Six Metamorphoses after Ovid first performed in 1951. Inspired by characters fromOvid's fifteen-volume workMetamorphoses, Britten titled the movement, "Pan: who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved."
The British rock bandPink Floyd named its first albumThe Piper at the Gates of Dawn in reference to Pan as he appears inThe Wind in the Willows. Andrew King, Pink Floyd's manager, saidSyd Barrett "thought Pan had given him an understanding into the way nature works. It formed into his holistic view of the world."[82]
MusicianMike Scott of the Waterboys refers to Pan as an archetypal force within us all, and talks about his search for “The Pan Within", a theme also reflected in the song’s sequel, “The Return of Pan".[83]
In the English town ofPainswick inGloucestershire, a group of eighteenth-century gentry, led by Benjamin Hyett, organised an annual procession dedicated to Pan, during which a statue of the deity was held aloft, and people shouted "Highgates! Highgates!" Hyett also erected temples and follies to Pan in the gardens of his house and a "Pan's lodge", located over Painswick Valley. The tradition died out in the 1830s, but was revived in 1885 by a new vicar, W. H. Seddon, who mistakenly believed that the festival had been ancient in origin. One of Seddon's successors, however, was less appreciative of the pagan festival and put an end to it in 1950, when he had Pan's statue buried.[84]
OccultistsAleister Crowley andVictor Neuburg built an altar to Pan on Da'leh Addin, a mountain in Algeria, where they performed a magic ceremony to summon the god. In the final rite of the 1910 ritual playThe Rites of Eleusis, written by Crowley, Pan "pulls back the final veil, revealing the child Horus, who represents humanity's eternal and divine element."[83]
In 1933, the EgyptologistMargaret Murray published the bookThe God of the Witches, in which she theorised that Pan was merely one form of ahorned god who was worshipped across Europe by a witch-cult.[85] This theory influenced theNeopagan notion of the Horned God, as anarchetype of male virility and sexuality. InWicca, the archetype of the Horned God is highly important, as represented by such deities as the CelticCernunnos, the HinduPashupati, and the Greek Pan.
^Herodotus was born about 485 BC, so by his reckoning Pan would have been born around 1285—earlier than the Trojan War as estimated by most of the Greek antiquarians, and a century before the date reckoned by Eratosthenes.
^Morford, Mark P. O.; Lenardon, Robert J. (1985) [1971].Classical Mythology (third ed.). New York and London: Longman. pp. 476, 477.
^Grant, Michael (1984) [1971].Roman Myths. New York: Dorset Press.
^The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Hutton, Ronald, chapter 3
^Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006).The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 434.ISBN978-0-19-929668-2.
^Edwin L. Brown, "The Divine Name 'Pan'",Transactions of the American Philological Association107 (1977:57–61), notes (p. 59) that the first inscription mentioning Pan is a sixth-century dedication to ΠΑΟΝΙ, a "still uncontracted" form.
^Eliade, Mircea (1982)A History of Religious Ideas Vol. 2. University of Chicago Press. § 205.
^In the second-century "Hieronyman Theogony', which harmonizedOrphic themes from the theogony of Protogonos with Stoicism, he is Protogonos, Phanes, Zeus and Pan; in the Orphic Rhapsodies he is additionally called Metis, Eros, Erikepaios and Bromios. The inclusion of Pan seems to be a Hellenic syncretization (West, M. L. (1983) The Orphic Poems. Oxford:Oxford University Press. p. 205).
^Hard,p. 215; March,p. 582. According to Hard, the idea ofPenelope being the mother "is so odd that it is tempting to suppose that this Penelope was not originally the wife of Odysseus, but an entirely different figure, perhaps an Arcadian nymph or the above-mentioned daughter of Dryops".
^TheHomeric Hymn to Pan provides the earliest example of this wordplay, suggesting that Pan's name was born from the fact that he delighted "all" the gods.
^Pan "even boasted that he had slept with every maenad that ever was—to facilitate that extraordinary feat, he could be multiplied into a whole brotherhood of Pans."
^"In this story Hermes is clearly out of place. He was one of the youngest sons of Zeus and was brought into the story only because... he was a master/thief. The real participant in the story was Aigipan: the god Pan, that is to say. in his quality of a goat (aix). (Kerenyi, p. 28). Kerenyi points out that Python of Delphi had a son Aix (Plutarch,Moralia 293c) and detects a note of kinship betrayal.
^Hard,p. 46; Gantz, p. 36; Kerenyi, pp. 175, 196; Grimal, s.v. Selene;Virgil,Georgics3.391–93 has Pan capturing and deceiving Luna with the gift of a fleece;Servius,Commentary on the Georgics of Vergil391 ascribes to the Greek poetNicander an earlier account that Pan wrapped himself in a fleece to disguise himself as a sheep.
^Also testified byClement inHomilies5.16. Clement, a Christian pope, was trying to discredit pagans and their beliefs in his works, however other finds seem to support this particular claim.
^Lane Fox, Robin (1988).Pagans and Christians. London: Penguin Books. p. 130.ISBN0-14-009737-6.
^William Hansen (2002) "Ariadne's thread: A guide to international tales found in classical literature" Cornell University Press. pp.133–136
^Kathleen M. Swaim, "'Mighty Pan': Tradition and an Image in Milton's Nativity 'Hymn'",Studies in Philology68.4 (October 1971:484–495)..
^See Corinne Davies, "Two of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Pan poems and their after-life in Robert Browning's 'Pan and Luna'",Victorian Poetry44,.4, (Winter 2006:561–569).
^Alcott, Louisa May (September 1863)."Thoreau's Flute"(PDF).The Atlantic Monthly:280–281.
^Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1987) [1977]. "Evil in the Classical World".The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Cornell paperbacks (reprint ed.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 125, 126.ISBN9780801494093. Retrieved20 February 2024.The iconography of Pan and the Devil [...] coalesce: cloven hooves, goat's legs, horns, beast's ears, saturnine face, and goatee. [...] The iconographic influence of Pan upon the Devil is enormous.
^Payne-Knight, R.Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, 1786, p.73
Diotima (2007),The Goat Foot God, Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
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