The Myth of the God Pan: The Panic Terror, the Music of the Syrinx, and the Wild Nature of the Forests
The Lord of Arcadia In the rustic highlands of Arcadia, in the central Peloponnese of Greece, a single deity was worshiped as the personification of the wild, untamed forces of nature. Pan , depicted with the horns, beard, and legs of a goat and the torso of a man, was the god of shepherds, flocks, mountain forests, and rustic music. Born of Hermes and a nymph, his appearance was so bizarre that his mother fled in terror, but Hermes carried him to Mount Olympus, where his arrival delighted the hearts of all the gods, who named him Pan (meaning "All" or "Universal"). The myth of Pan is the mystery of the vegetative spirit ( viriditas ). Unlike the Olympian gods, who represent the refined, rational intellect and the civic order of the city-states, Pan was a deity of the wilderness, living in the caves, the rocky ravines, and the deep shade of the forests. He was associated with the meridian hour —the heavy, hot noon when the sun is at its zenith and the nature f...