Pan

=Pan - God of Shepherds and Flocks, Mountain Wilds, Hunting, and Music=

Pan was the child of the god Hermes, and his mother changes by myth. His primary place of worship was in Arcadia. After the battle of Marathon his worship spread to Athens. Pan's image is that of a faun, and from birth he had a full beard, goats feet, and 2 horns. Pan doesn't have one major myth like many gods but instead has several stories he is in. Pan battled against the titans with his foster brother Zeus, in the battle he screeched and scattered the titans in terror. Pan was also known to have affection for water nymphs, one major story goes that Pan sought the water nymph Syrinx of Arcadia, Pan chased after her and she fled to Mount Lycaeum where her sisters turned her into a water reed. Pan didn't know which reed she was and took seven and cut them into pieces and put them together side by side, making a pan flute, which is named after him. Another story of Pan tells of him meeting the nymph Echo, she was a singer and dancer yet she scorned the love of man, which angered Pan, who ordered his followers to kill her. During the reign of Tiberius, the roman emperor, the sailor Thamus, on one of his voyages, heard a divine voice say that Pan is dead, when he reached his destination the news was lamented.

Pan was the god of shepherds and flocks, as well as mountain wilds where he would play pan flutes, also music, and hunting. Hunters in Greece owed their success to him and if they failed they would curse him. When men were lonely in the wild it is said Pan would arouse panic in them. His chasing of nymph's also signifies him as a god of spring and fertility, and sexuality.

[|Pan, at Wikipedia] [|PAN: Greek god of sheperds and flocks]