Pan

The goat-legged, horned god of the wild, of shepherds and their flocks, who haunts the mountains and woodlands of Arcadia. The Homeric Hymn to Pan makes him the son of Hermes by a daughter of Dryops: born goat-footed and bearded, he so delighted all the gods when Hermes brought him to Olympus that they named him Pan ('all') (Hom. *Hymn* 19). He plays the syrinx, the shepherd's pipe of reeds; his sudden cry in lonely places strikes the irrational fear that bears his name — 'panic.' Unusually among the gods he was said to be mortal: the cry 'Great Pan is dead' marks his singular passing.

Associated Places