The Hellenic pantheon is a complex spiritual world of major and minor Gods and Goddesses, who oversee human events and are engaged in stories of their own. Pan, rules over nature and pasturelands. He is frequently depicted in literature and artworks. Although He is not one of the major Gods of the Hellenic Pantheon , He is one of most often mentioned figures in Greek Religion.
Pan, the God of the Wild
Pan is associated with nature, wooded areas and pasturelands. The worship of Pan began in the countryside and therefore, He does not have large temples built to worship Him. He is the Lord of shepherds, hunters and rustic music.He is the God responsible for human activities involving animals, most prominently hunting and livestock keeping.
Pan can often be found in the company of the tree Nymphs and other deities of the forest.
He is most commonly depicted as having the legs, and horns of a goat, with the upper body and hands of a human male. He often holds either a shepherd's crook, used for hunting small game, or else a syrinx, a flute-like instrument also known as the panpipe.
In the poetry of 5th century BCE, Pan and His natural habitat were used as symbol of the difference between the countryside and the urban, organised environment.Pan's duality, symbolises the equilibrium between the deeply primitive and wild and the urbanised, 'proper' parts of human nature. Pan is called the God of the Cosmos, and probably His existence between the two aspects of humankind played a significant role in that.
Pan is also known to inspire panic, the paranoid fear that has the potential to reduce human beings to their most animalistic instincts. It is from the name Pan that this word derived.Pan is also considered responsible for panolepsy, a condition very similar to what we call 'possession'. In addition, Pan is known for His music, which is capable of arousing inspiration, sexuality, or even panic itself, depending upon the God's intentions.
Pan is part of Dionysos' entourage and it is said that he was extremely popular with Maenads and Nymphs. This could be the basis for the story that there are more that one Pan- His erotic encounters produced an entire group of similar beings, who were called Paniskoi or Panes. This group is often artistically depicted in Ancient Greece.
The most prevalent tradition is that He is the son of Hermes and a nymph, either Dryope or Penelope. The Homeric Hymn to Pan mentions that, Pan's mother abandoned Him as soon as she saw His animal-like appearance. However, sources indicate that Pan can be older than the Olympian Gods .For instance, it is mentioned that Pan gave Artemis Her hunting dogs.The name Pan means "all" .Less familiar stories link him to the sea- hence his epithet 'Haliplanktos'; He's also considered a healer,and reveals the cure through dreams, like God Asclepios.Moreover, He is also mentioned as a God who provides oracles. These little known sides of Pan seem quite strange and multiply the complexity of this fascinating God. It can be safely assumed that this God drew His origins from a very distant past, which was hard to recall even by the ancient Greeks.
Pan is famously associated with music, and one of the stories about Him describes how His emblematic flute was created.Pan fell in love with Syrinx, a beautiful Nymph who, as a follower of Artemis,took her vows of chastity very seriously. As she was returning from the hunt one day, Pan ambushed her. She ran away and He pursued her from Mount Lycaeum until she reached the bank of the River Ladon. Here Pan overtook her and,in her despair, Syrinx called upon the river Nymphs for help; the moment Pan grabbed her, she transformed into a river reed.The wind creates a distinctive sound, when it blows through the reeds. In memory of his unrequitted love, Pan created an instrument and named it after Syrinx.
We cannot separate the image of Pan from the concept of sex. Pan has been associated with sex from the very beginning. The fact that Pan is generally depicted with an erection shows that He is a sexual God,a God of lust and sexuality in its most instinctive and primal form. He is the Patron of physical pleasure.
Pan was first worshiped in ancient Arcadia, a mountainous area in central Peloponnese, which remained the most important location of His cult. Pan was considered Lord of Arcadia and guardian of its sanctuaries.
Pagan is the God who can bless livestock with fertility or curse them with sterility and disease- therefore, the shepherds of Arcadia worshiped him; along with the hunters, since Pan's domain were the forests and fields which provided them with wild game.
In the 5th century BCE,the cult of Pan started to rise in the city of Athens. According to Herodotus's account, Pan was declared an official deity in the city after appearing to the messenger Phillippides,when he went on an assignment to Arcadia, before the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Pan questioned Phillippides as to why the Athenians had not yet dedicated a cult to Him, despite all His benevolence.One of the most intriquing accounts about the Battle of Marathon describes that Pan inspired panic in the hearts of the Persians, allowing the Athenians, whom He favored, to defeat their enemy. Grateful for their epic victory, the Athenians consecrated a grotto on the northwest slope of the Acropolis in honor of Pan. After this period, Pan's cult was no longer restricted to the Greek countryside- he started to appear more and more both in works of art and in the religious life of other important Greek centers, such as Delphi.
Pan, the God of the Wild
He is most commonly depicted as having the legs, and horns of a goat, with the upper body and hands of a human male. He often holds either a shepherd's crook, used for hunting small game, or else a syrinx, a flute-like instrument also known as the panpipe.
In the poetry of 5th century BCE, Pan and His natural habitat were used as symbol of the difference between the countryside and the urban, organised environment.Pan's duality, symbolises the equilibrium between the deeply primitive and wild and the urbanised, 'proper' parts of human nature. Pan is called the God of the Cosmos, and probably His existence between the two aspects of humankind played a significant role in that.
Pan is also known to inspire panic, the paranoid fear that has the potential to reduce human beings to their most animalistic instincts. It is from the name Pan that this word derived.Pan is also considered responsible for panolepsy, a condition very similar to what we call 'possession'. In addition, Pan is known for His music, which is capable of arousing inspiration, sexuality, or even panic itself, depending upon the God's intentions.
Pan is part of Dionysos' entourage and it is said that he was extremely popular with Maenads and Nymphs. This could be the basis for the story that there are more that one Pan- His erotic encounters produced an entire group of similar beings, who were called Paniskoi or Panes. This group is often artistically depicted in Ancient Greece.
The most prevalent tradition is that He is the son of Hermes and a nymph, either Dryope or Penelope. The Homeric Hymn to Pan mentions that, Pan's mother abandoned Him as soon as she saw His animal-like appearance. However, sources indicate that Pan can be older than the Olympian Gods .For instance, it is mentioned that Pan gave Artemis Her hunting dogs.The name Pan means "all" .Less familiar stories link him to the sea- hence his epithet 'Haliplanktos'; He's also considered a healer,and reveals the cure through dreams, like God Asclepios.Moreover, He is also mentioned as a God who provides oracles. These little known sides of Pan seem quite strange and multiply the complexity of this fascinating God. It can be safely assumed that this God drew His origins from a very distant past, which was hard to recall even by the ancient Greeks.
Pan is famously associated with music, and one of the stories about Him describes how His emblematic flute was created.Pan fell in love with Syrinx, a beautiful Nymph who, as a follower of Artemis,took her vows of chastity very seriously. As she was returning from the hunt one day, Pan ambushed her. She ran away and He pursued her from Mount Lycaeum until she reached the bank of the River Ladon. Here Pan overtook her and,in her despair, Syrinx called upon the river Nymphs for help; the moment Pan grabbed her, she transformed into a river reed.The wind creates a distinctive sound, when it blows through the reeds. In memory of his unrequitted love, Pan created an instrument and named it after Syrinx.
We cannot separate the image of Pan from the concept of sex. Pan has been associated with sex from the very beginning. The fact that Pan is generally depicted with an erection shows that He is a sexual God,a God of lust and sexuality in its most instinctive and primal form. He is the Patron of physical pleasure.
Pan was first worshiped in ancient Arcadia, a mountainous area in central Peloponnese, which remained the most important location of His cult. Pan was considered Lord of Arcadia and guardian of its sanctuaries.
Pagan is the God who can bless livestock with fertility or curse them with sterility and disease- therefore, the shepherds of Arcadia worshiped him; along with the hunters, since Pan's domain were the forests and fields which provided them with wild game.
In the 5th century BCE,the cult of Pan started to rise in the city of Athens. According to Herodotus's account, Pan was declared an official deity in the city after appearing to the messenger Phillippides,when he went on an assignment to Arcadia, before the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Pan questioned Phillippides as to why the Athenians had not yet dedicated a cult to Him, despite all His benevolence.One of the most intriquing accounts about the Battle of Marathon describes that Pan inspired panic in the hearts of the Persians, allowing the Athenians, whom He favored, to defeat their enemy. Grateful for their epic victory, the Athenians consecrated a grotto on the northwest slope of the Acropolis in honor of Pan. After this period, Pan's cult was no longer restricted to the Greek countryside- he started to appear more and more both in works of art and in the religious life of other important Greek centers, such as Delphi.
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