The most famous version of the Pan and Echo myth was written by Longus, a Greek author of the second or third century CE. In this story, unlike Ovid’s myth, it is Echo who rejects the admirer. Pan was the god of shepherds and flocks. He appeared half human and half goat and had a lustful nature. He was always chasing nymphs whom he desired. Pan encountered Echo and immediately desired her. She was not only pretty but could sing sweetly and play many musical instruments. Despite Pan’s divine status, Echo rejected the god’s advances. In anger, Pan incited a group of shepherds to attack Echo. They tore her body into little pieces, until all that remained was her voice echoing through the forest.
In this myth, Echo’s offense falls at the other end of the spectrum from her encounter with Narcissus: instead of going too far, she fails to go far enough by not acceding to the lust of a god. The ultimate outcome of her punishment is the same in both myths, but in the second the means is much more brutal: it is arguable that Echo’s violent dismemberment represents rape. This peculiar account is told as part of a larger story about the erotic maturation of a young girl named Chloe. In many myths, a girl’s first sexual experience is painful, often the result of rape by some god, and tends to be transformative. In other words, becoming a woman is symbolized by her change into, for instance, a tree or a fountain. Chloe had the rare fortune in myth to love and be loved by a young man named Daphnis. Echo’s myth, told to Chloe just before the climax of her own story, heightens the dramatic suspense and plays counterpoint to the happy resolution of Chloe’s romance.
Kathryn Chew
Bibliography
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfmch’s Mythology. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006.
Ovid, and A. D. Melville, trans. Metamorphoses. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
World History
