PAN (Πάν). — In Arcadia, where theriomorphism was accentuated, the cult of this deity originated; tradition represents him as the son of Ermes and the nymph Driope, bearded, with goat’s legs and furnished with horns.
The name Πάν is the contracted form of Πάν-ων, as in the Arcadian inscription from Melpea dating from the sixth century B.C.: τοί Πάων (Inscript Gr., V, 2, 556; cf. E. Schwyzer, Dialect. Graec. exempla, Lipsia 1923, p. 327, n. 676). The ancients, by a false etymology, also associated his name with the idea of the whole (Homeric Hymn to P., 47; Orph. hymn., 11, 1), as did Neoplatonic mysticism: τὸ ὄν καὶ τὸ πᾶν; art sometimes made him the centre zodiac (v.). After the Persian Wars, P., followed by various names such as Lupercus, Menalius, etc., was officially venerated throughout Greece (Herodotus, VI, 105) and, together with local deities and legends, had long been venerated in various cities of Egypt (id., II, 145). A cave dedicated to him stood on the north-western flank of the Acropolis (Lucian, Dial. deor., XXII, 3; W. Judeich, Topographie von Athen, 2nd ed., Monaco 1931, p. 302), and in the Hellenistic period Antigonus, victorious over the Celts, consecrated several Πάν-ων at Delos.
The Homeric Hymn to P., perhaps datable to the Alexandrian period, extensively highlights his pastoral and sylvan character. The god lives in the woods nymphs (v.), satyrs, and lesser demons, the Panisci, accompanying their dances with the sound of his syrinx. When disturbed, he can cause terror, especially around midday. P., together with Priapus and the satyrs, rises to represent sensual and unrestrained 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.). At the end of Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates prays to him as the god of inner beauty (279 b-c). In De defectu oraculorum, 17, Plutarch speaks of the death of great P., and one of Lucian’s dialogues (XXII) ridicules his prerogatives.
In Roman religion he was soon confused with the indigenous deities Faunus and Silvanus; with Christianity, popular imagination curiously associated his deformed figure with the traditional image of the demon.
In art P. is frequently represented as shaggy and goat-footed, although a statue of the Polycleitan school depicts him in a youthful posture.