Pan

Pan
Pan (Greek: Πᾶν, Pān), in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs.[1] His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein (πάειν), meaning "to pasture."[2] He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism.[3]

In Roman religion and myth, Pan's counterpart was Faunus, a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Pan became a significant figure in the Romantic movement of western Europe, and also in the 20th-century Neopagan movement.[4]

Origins

'''In his earliest appearance in literature,Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. 78, Pan is associated with amother goddess, perhapsRheaorCybele; Pindar refers to virgins worshippingCybeleand Pan near the poet's house inBoeotia.[5]'''

'''The parentage of Pan is unclear;[6]in somemythshe is the son ofZeus, though generally he is the son ofHermesorDionysus, with whom his mother is said to be anymph, sometimesDryopeor, inNonnus, Dionysiaca (14.92), Penelope ofMantineiain Arcadia. This nymph at some point in the tradition became conflated withPenelope, the wife ofOdysseus.Pausanias8.12.5 records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. 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.[7]This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν).[8]It is more likely to becognatewith paein, "to pasture", and to share an origin with the modern English word "pasture". In 1924, Hermann Collitz suggested that Greek Pan and IndicPushanmight have a common Indo-European origin.[9]In theMystery cultsof the highly syncreticHellenisticera[10]Pan is made cognate withPhanes/Protogonos,Zeus,DionysusandEros.[11]'''

'''TheRomanundefinedFaunus, a god of Indo-European origin, was equated with Pan. However, accounts of Pan's genealogy are so varied that it must lie buried deep in mythic time. Like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than theOlympians, if it is true that he gaveArtemisher hunting dogs and taught the secret of prophecy toApollo. Pan might be multiplied as the Panes (Burkert 1985, III.3.2; Ruck and Staples 1994 p 132[12]) or the Paniskoi. Kerenyi (1951 p 174) notes fromscholiathatAeschylusin Rhesus 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".'''

[edit]Worship
'''The worship of Pan began inArcadiawhich was always the principal seat of his worship. Arcadia was a district of mountain people whom other Greeks disdained. Greek hunters used to scourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase (Theocritus. vii. 107). Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usuallycavesorgrottoessuch as the one on the north slope of theAcropolis of Athens. The only exception is thetemple of Panon theNeda Rivergorge, in southwesternPeloponnese, the ruins of which survive to this day.'''

[edit]Mythology
'''The goat-godAegipanwas nurtured byAmaltheawith the infantZeusin Athens. In Zeus' battle withGaia, Aegipan andHermesstole back Zeus' "sinews" thatTyphonhad hidden away in theCorycian Cave.[13]Pan aided his foster-brother in thebattle with the Titansby letting out a horrible screech and scattering them in terror. According to some traditions,Aegipanwas the son of Pan, rather than his father.'''

'''One of the famous myths of Pan involves the origin of hispan flute, fashioned from lengths of hollow reed.Syrinxwas a lovely water-nymphof Arcadia, daughter of Landon, 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 from Mount 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 belovedSyrinx. Henceforth Pan was seldom seen without it.'''

'''Echowas a nymph who was a great singer and dancer and scorned the love of any man. This angered Pan, alecherousgod, 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 first had one child:Iambe.'''

Pan also loved a nymph namedPitys, who was turned into a pine tree to escape him.

'''Disturbed in his secluded afternoon naps, Pan's angry shout inspiredpanic(panikon deima) in lonely places.[14][15]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.[16]'''

[edit]Erotic aspects
undefined''Pan with a goat, statue fromVilla of the Papyri,Herculaneum.Pan is famous for his sexual powers, and is often depicted with aphallus.Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learningmasturbationfrom his father,Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds.[17]

'''Pan's greatest conquest was that of the moon goddessSelene. He accomplished this by wrapping himself in asheepskin[18]to hide his hairy black goat form, and drew her down from the sky into the forest where he seduced her.'''

[edit]Pan and music
In two late Roman sources,Hyginus[19]andOvid,[20]Pan is substituted for the satyrMarsyasin 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 umpire. 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.'''

'''In another version of the myth, the first round of the contest was a tie, so the competitors were forced to hold a second round. In this round, Apollo demanded that they play their instruments upside-down. Apollo, playing the lyre, was unaffected. However, Pan's pipe couldn't be played while upside down, so Apollo won the contest.'''

[edit]Capricornus
'''TheconstellationundefinedCapricornusis traditionally depicted as a sea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail (see"Goatlike" Aigaion called Briareos, one of the Hecatonchires). A myth reported as "Egyptian" inGaius Julius Hyginus' Poetic Astronomy[21]that would seem to be invented to justify a connection of Pan with Capricorn says that whenAegipan— that is Pan in his goat-god aspect —[18]was attacked by the monsterTyphon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish.'''

[edit]Epithets
Aegocerus "goat-horned" was an epithet of Pan descriptive of his figure with the horns of a goat.[22]

[edit]All of the Pans
'''Pan could be multiplied into a swarm of Pans, and even be given individual names, as inNonnus' Dionysiaca, where the god Pan had twelve sons that helped Dionysus in his war against the Indians. Their names were Kelaineus, Argennon, Aigikoros, Eugeneios, Omester, Daphoineus, Phobos, Philamnos, Xanthos, Glaukos, Argos, and Phorbas.'''

'''Two other Pans wereAgreusandNomios. Both were the sons of Hermes, Agreus' mother being the nymph Sose, a prophetess: he inherited his mother's gift of prophecy, and was also a skilled hunter. Nomios' mother was Penelope (not the same as the wife of Odysseus). He was an excellent shepherd, seducer of nymphs, and musician upon the shepherd's pipes. Most of the mythological stories about Pan are actually about Nomios, not the god Pan. Although, Agreus and Nomios could have been two different aspects of the prime Pan, reflecting his dual nature as both a wise prophet and a lustful beast.'''

'''Aegipan, literally "goat-Pan," was a Pan who was fully goatlike, rather than half-goat and half-man. When the Olympians fled from the monstrous giant Typhoeus and hid themselves in animal form, Aegipan assumed the form of a fish-tailed goat. Later he came to the aid of Zeus in his battle with Typhoeus, by stealing back Zeus' stolen sinews. As a reward the king of the gods placed him amongst the stars as the Constellation Capricorn. The mother of Aegipan, Aix (the goat), was perhaps associated with the constellation Capra.'''

'''Sybarios was an Italian Pan who was worshipped in the Greek colony of Sybaris in Italy. The Sybarite Pan was conceived when a Sybarite shepherd boy named Krathis copulated with a pretty she-goat amongst his herds.'''

[edit]The "Death" of Pan
undefinedPan,Mikhail Vrubel1900.'According to the Greek historianPlutarch(in De defectu oraculorum, "The Obsolescence of Oracles"),[23]Pan is the only Greek god (other thanAsclepius) who actually dies. During the reign ofTiberius(A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island ofPaxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reachPalodes,[24]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.'''

'''Robert Graves(The Greek Myths) reported a suggestion that had been made by Salomon Reinach[25]and expanded by James S. Van Teslaar[26]that the hearers aboard the ship, including a supposed Egyptian, Thamus, apparently misheard Thamus Panmegas tethneke 'the all-greatTammuzis dead' for 'Thamus, Great Pan is dead!', Thamous, Pan ho megas tethneke. "In 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."[27]Certainly, whenPausaniastoured Greece about a century after Plutarch, he found Pan's shrines, sacred caves and sacred mountains still very much frequented. Christian apologists, however, took Plutarch's notice to heart, and repeated and amplified it until the 18th century.[28]It was interpreted withconcurrent meaningsundefinedin all four modes of medieval exegesis: literally as historical fact, andallegoricallyas the death of the ancient order at the coming of the new.Eusebius of Caesareain his Praeparatio Evangelica (book V) seems to have been the first Christian apologist to give Plutarch's anecdote, which he identifies as his source, pseudo-historical standing, which Eusebius buttressed with many invented passing details that lentverisimilitude.'''

The cry "Great Pan is dead" has appealed to poets, such asJohn Milton, in his ecstatic celebration of Christian peace, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity line 89,[29]undefinedElizabeth Barrett Browning,[30]and the characterGroverin thePercy Jacksonseries byRick Riordanas he desperately searches the world for any sign that Pan might still be alive.[31][32]

One remarkable commentary of Herodotus[33]on Pan is that he lived 800 years before himself (c. 1200 BCE), this being already after the Trojan War.

[edit]Satan
'undefinedFrancisco Goya, le Sabbat des sorcières (the Sabbath of witches). Oil on canvas, 44 × 31 cm. Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid.Pan's goatish image recalls conventionalfaun-like depictions ofSatan. Although Christian use of Plutarch's story is of long standing,Ronald Huttonundefined[34]has argued that this specific association is modern and derives from Pan's popularity in Victorian and Edwardianneopaganism. Medieval and early modern images of Satan tend, by contrast, to show generic semi-human monsters with horns, wings and clawed feet.'''

[edit]Revivalist imagery
undefinedPan depicted on the cover of The Wind in the Willows'In the late 18th century, interest in Pan revived among liberal scholars.Richard Payne Knightdiscussed Pan in his Discourse 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."[35]'''

'''In the English town ofPainswickinGloucestershire, a group of 18th 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 the 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.[36]'''

'''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".[37]He appears in poetry, in novels and children's books, and is referenced in the name of the characterPeter Pan.[38]He is the eponymous "Piper at the Gates of Dawn"[39]in the seventh chapter ofKenneth Grahame's The 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 the Rat and Mole recover the Otter's lost son Portly.'''

'''Pan entices villagers to listen to his pipes as if in a trance inLord Dunsany's novel 'The Blessing of Pan' published in 1927. Although the god does not appear within the story, his energy certainly invokes the younger folk of the village to revel in the summer twilight, and the vicar of the village is the only person worried about the revival of worship for the old pagan god.'''

Pan is also featured as a prominent character inTom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume (1984).Aeronautical engineerandoccultistundefinedJack Parsonsinvoked Pan before test launches at theJet Propulsion Laboratory.

[edit]Neopaganism
'''In 1933, the EgyptologistMargaret Murraypublished the book, The God of the Witches, in which she theorised that Pan was merely one form of ahorned godwho was worshipped across Europe by awitch-cult.[40]This theory influenced theNeopagannotion of the Horned God, as anarchetypeof male virility and sexuality. InWicca, the archetype of the Horned God is highly important, as represented by such deities as the CelticCernunnos, IndianPashupatiand Greek Pan.'''

'''A modern account of several purported meetings with Pan is given byRobert Ogilvie Crombiein The Findhorn Garden (Harper & Row, 1975) and The Magic Of Findhorn (Harper & Row, 1975). Crombie claimed to have met Pan many times at various locations in Scotland, includingEdinburgh, on the island ofIonaand at theFindhorn Foundation.'''