Kerenyi (p. 174) notes from scholia that Aeschylus in Rhesus distinguished between two Pans, one the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas, and one a son of Cronus. Pan might be multiplied as the Pans (Burkert 1985, III.3.2 Ruck and Staples, 1994, p. 132 ) or the Paniskoi. Like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than the Olympians, if it is true that he gave Artemis her hunting dogs and taught the secret of prophecy to Apollo. Īccounts of Pan's genealogy are so varied that it must lie buried deep in mythic time. In the mystery cults of the highly syncretic Hellenistic era, Pan is made cognate with Phanes/Protogonos, Zeus, Dionysus and Eros.
This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν). According to Robert Graves, his mother was called Oeneis, a nymph who consorted with Hermes. Other sources ( Duris of Samos the Vergilian commentator Servius) report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. Pausanias records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. 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. In some early sources such as Pindar, his father is Apollo and mother Penelope. The parentage of Pan is unclear generally he is the son of Hermes and a wood nymph, either Dryope or Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. Representations of Pan on 4th-century BC gold and silver Pantikapaion coins.
In the 4th century BC Pan was depicted on the coinage of Pantikapaion. The only exceptions are the Temple of Pan on the Neda River gorge in the southwestern Peloponnese – the ruins of which survive to this day – and the Temple of Pan at Apollonopolis Magna in ancient Egypt. These are often referred to as the Cave of Pan. īeing a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usually caves or grottoes such as the one on the north slope of the Acropolis of Athens. Arcadian hunters used to scourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase. Arcadia was a district of mountain people, culturally separated from other Greeks. The worship of Pan began in Arcadia which was always the principal seat of his worship. 78, Pan is associated with a mother goddess, perhaps Rhea or Cybele Pindar refers to maidens worshipping Cybele and Pan near the poet's house in Boeotia. In his earliest appearance in literature, Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. Brown, the name Pan is probably a cognate with the Greek word ὀπάων "companion". The familiar form of the name Pan is contracted from earlier Πάων, derived from the root * peh₂- (guard, watch over). The connection between Pan and Pushan was first identified in 1924 by the German scholar Hermann Collitz. The Rigvedic god Pushan is believed to be a cognate of Pan. Many modern scholars consider Pan to be derived from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European god *Péh₂usōn, whom they believe to have been an important pastoral deity ( *Péh₂usōn shares an origin with the modern English word "pasture"). Draft for the woodcut "Pan" of Jozef Cantré. Pan illustrated in the Flemish magazine "Regenboog". 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. In Roman religion and myth, Pan's counterpart was Faunus, a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna he was also closely associated with Sylvanus, due to their similar relationships with woodlands. The word panic ultimately derives from the god's name. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, 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. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pan ( / p æ n/ Ancient Greek: Πάν, romanized: Pán) is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. Mask of the god Pan, detail from a bronze stamnoid situla, 340–320 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov Collection, Sofia, Bulgaria