God of forests, pastures, flocks and shepherds, Dionysus' favorite. While Hermes was guarding the herds of a mortal in Arcadia, he saw a beautiful nymph, Driop's daughter, and wished her love. The fruit of that love was a wonderful child, with goat horns, legs and tail, noisy and smiling. The mother was frightened by the two-horned bearded toddler, but Hermes rejoiced greatly at him; he wrapped his son in the fur of a mountain rabbit, and then took him to Olympus and proudly showed him to the gods. Everyone was happy for the boy, especially Dionysus. The gods named Hermes' son Pan (meaning "all, all"), because he made everyone's hearts happy.
Pan was born in Arcadia, a pastoral land in the middle of the Peloponnese. Some say that his father is Apollo, Zeus or Crohn, and his mother is the nymph Penelope or Callisto. The nymph Penelope was later identified with Odysseus' wife; therefore Pan was thought to be the son of Odysseus and Penelope, or Penelope and Hermes, or Penelope and all her beggars. According to another legend, there are two Lords: one - who is the son of Zeus and Callistus, Arkady's twin brother, and the other - who is the son of Cronus and Ray.
The snowy mountain peaks and rocky paths belong to the hairy, two-horned Pan; he runs through thick bushes, walks around caves or wanders on a steep rock, where he hunts beasts and plays the shepherd's flute. He is accompanied by mountain nymphs, with whom he often sings and dances near springs. He is naughty and cheerful, but also irritable, especially when he is upset during the afternoon rest. Tired of hunting, singing and playing, Pan sleeps at noon, and the shepherds are afraid that he will be disturbed at that time. He is often in the company of Dionysus and his merry companions - nymph, Silenus and satire. Panu is sometimes joined by many similar beings, pani and panisci. Its sudden appearance causes confusion and fear (hence the "panic"). He knew how to fill people and animals with fear, unexpected and unreasonable terror. Blowing into the shell, he caused panic when Zeus led the gods in the fight against Crohn and the Titans. He possessed the gift of prophecy and taught Apollo to prophesy.
With his love, Pan persecuted many beautiful nymphs and young shepherds. He was unlucky in love: the nymph Pitis transformed into a spruce, Echo rejected him, and Syringa transformed into a reed, from which the loving Pan made a shepherd's flute (syringa). Pan also loved the goddess Selena, who rejected him until he put on a white ram's fleece or gave her a beautiful sheep's fleece.
Pan is the only deity believed to be mortal. Stories of his death appeared during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius (14-37). A ship sailing from Greece to Italy was left without wind not far from the island of Pax. Suddenly, a voice from the shore shouted three times, "Tammuz!" The Egyptian helmsman, whose name was Tammuz, answered the call, and a voice from the shore said to him, "Tell them that the great Pan is dead." When the sea current brought the ship closer to the shore, but in another place, the helmsman shouted that Pan was dead, to which the people on land burst into tears and lamentations. As soon as the sailors arrived in Italy, the emperor Tiberius called the helmsman, and the scholars summoned to interpret the event agreed that the Pan in question was not a god but a demon of the same name. Apparently, the sailors heard a ritual lament for Adonis or even the Babylonian Tammuz. The early Christians found solace in this story, believing that it heralded the beginning of the end of the pagan age. In the late Middle Ages, in various theological speculations, this great Pan was equated with Satan or Christ.
Pan was first revered in the Peloponnese, in Arcadia, and only after the Battle of Marathon (490 AD) did his cult spread throughout the Greek world because it was believed to have helped the Athenians win that battle. It happened that with his behavior, appearance and shouting, Pan filled the entire army with fear, so the belief spread that in the Marathon battle, he threatened the Persians with a noise, who fled. In the caves on the slopes of the Acropolis of Athens, Pan was revered along with the nymphs.
As a deity who multiplies herds and ensures successful hunting, Pan is conceived as an itiphalic god, clad in lynx fur, with a shepherd's staff (pedum) and a lagobolon in his hands. In Roman times, he was identified with Fauna and Silvanus.
In fine arts, Pan is often represented, especially on painted vases and reliefs, as he plays in the company of nymphs or as he pursues them. In later works of art, his human qualities are more emphasized.
Literature:
• Dragoslav Srejović - Aleksandrina Cermanović-Kuzmanović, Recnik grčke i rimske mitologije, drugo izdanje, Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, 1987
Mythology has memorized many of Pan’s love woes. When Pan fell in love with the nymph Pythia, but when she saw him, she turned to spruce out of fear. He then fell in love with the nymph Syringa, but she again decided to jump into the swamp out of fear and turned into a reed there. He only received affection from the unfortunate nymph Echo, to whom Narcissus did not return the love, but she also eventually rejected him. Daphnis was the son of the god Hermes and a Sicilian nymph. Apart from Apollo, Pan also fell in love with him and taught him to play.