PAN (Πάν). - In Arcadia, where theriomorphism was pronounced, the cult of this deity originated, whom tradition depicts as the son of Hermes and the nymph Dryope; bearded, with goat's feet and furnished with horns.

The name Πάν is the contracted form of Πάν-ων, as in the Arcadian inscription of Melpea dating to the 6th century B.C.: τοί Πάων (Inscript Gr., V, 2, 556; cf. E. Schwyzer, Dialect. Graec. exempla, Leipzig 1923, p. 327, n. 676). The ancients, by false etymology, also associated his name with the idea of the whole (Homeric Hymn to Pan, 47; Orph. hymn., 11, 1) and so did Neoplatonic mysticism: τὸ ὄν καὶ τὸ πᾶν; art sometimes made him the center of the depiction of the zodiac (v.). After the Persian Wars, Pan, followed by various appellations such as Lyterios, Menalios, etc., was officially worshipped throughout Greece (Herodotus, VI, 105) and, together with local deities and legends, had long been so (id., II, 145) in various cities of Egypt. A cave dedicated to him stood on the northwest flank of the Acropolis (Lucian, Dial. deor., XXII, 3; W. Judeich, Topographie von Athen, 2nd ed., Munich 1931, p. 302) and in the Hellenistic age, Antigonus, victorious over the Celts, consecrated to Delos some Πάν-ων.

The Homeric Hymn to Pan, perhaps datable to the Alexandrian age, amply brings out his pastoral and woodland character. The god lives in the woods in the company of the nymphs (v.), the satyrs and lesser demons, the Paniskoi, accompanying their dances to the sound of his syrinx. When disturbed he can cause terror, especially toward midday. Pan, with Priapus and the satyrs, rises to become a representation of sensual and unbridled love (Lucian, Dial. deor., XXII, 4). He is invoked by Pindar (e.g., Pyth., III, 78) and frequently in bucolic poetry (Theocritus, VII, 103 ff.). Socrates at the end of Plato's Phaedrus prays to him as the god of inner beauty (279 b-c). Plutarch in De defectu oraculorum, 17, speaks of the death of the great Pan, and a dialogue of Lucian (XXII) ridicules his prerogatives.

In Roman religion he was soon confused with the native deities Faunus and Silvanus, and with Christianity popular imagination curiously associated his deformed figure with the traditional image of the devil.

In art Pan is frequently represented as shaggy and goat-footed, although a statue of the Polyclitan school renders him in youthful form.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: J. A. Hild, s. v. in Ch. Daremberg-E. Saglio, Dict. des ant., IV, pp. 296-302; K. Wernicke, s. v. in Roscher, Lex. III, coll. 1348-1481; U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen, I, Berlin 1931, p. 247; II, ibid. 1932, pp. 176-78; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, I, Munich 1941, pp. 219-20; R. Herbig, Pan, der griechische Bockgott, Frankfurt a. M. 1949.

Lanfranco Fiore

@incollection{ec9_pan_pan, author = {Fiore, Lanfranco}, title = {Pan (ΠΆΝ)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {669}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pan-pan} }

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