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PAN |
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by Carlos Parada
[Pan, by Robert Maplethorpe] Pan is the god of woods, pastures, and other landscapes. God of wild nature When Pan was born and the nurse saw the face and the beard of the newborn child, she was afraid and fled. For this reason it has been said that irrational terrors (panic) come from Pan. Pan has a goat's feet and two horns, and wears a lynx-pelt. He is the god of woods and pastures, and also the mountain peaks and rocky crests are his domain. He wanders along the hills, slaying wild beasts. But in the evenings he plays sweet and low on his pipes of reed, with singing NYMPHS or CHARITES holding him company. Otherwise, when he is in the company of the Mother of the Gods (Rhea 1), Pan loves noise and high-pitched songs. Syrinx Pan fell in love with the Arcadian nymph Syrinx (an imitator of Artemis both in manners and in appearance), who had until then eluded the pursuit of both SATYRS and gods. Sirynx disdained Pan, and spurning his love and prayers, refused to take him as a sweetheart, who was neither man nor goat. The god then pursued her, but she came to the stream of the river Ladon in western Arcadia, and no longer being able to escape, she asked the nymphs of the river to change her form. And the nymphs, listening to her prayers, turned her into marsh reeds. So when Pan wished to hold her, there was nothing left of her except the reeds and the sound which the air produced in them. On hearing it, however, Pan was charmed, and thinking of the nymph, said to himself in triumph: "This converse, at least, shall I have with you." [Pan. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.710] And joining reeds of different sizes, he invented the musical instrument that was named syrinx after her, or sometimes Pan flute, after the god himself. The Pan flute defeated Pan is also remembered for having competed with that flute against Apollo's lyre, but the syrinx was judged by Tmolus to be inferior to Apollo's lyre. On the occasion, everyone agreed with the judgment except King Midas, who called it unjust. And it is for this reason that Midas acquired, by the will of Apollo, the ears of an ass, which he tried in vain to conceal under a turban.
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