Pan is distinctive among the Greek gods because of his hybrid human-animal form (theriomorphism). Originally a guardian of the goats whose character he shares, he achieved panhellenic status only in the fifth century, when his cult was introduced from Arcadia to Athens and rapidly diffused to the rest of the Greek world. Many etymologies have been put forward for his name, which is also known in the compound form Aigipan (Goat-Pan). The most convincing makes it a cognate of Latin pastor, so that Pan is ‘‘one who grazes the flocks.’’ In Arcadia itself, Pan’s myth and cult were not standardized (see also Chapter 17). There were conflicting views of his genealogy, the most common being that he was the son of Zeus and twin of the national hero Arcas, or that he was the son of Hermes and Penelope (Herodotus 2.145; Borgeaud 1988: 42). His connection with Zeus sprang from their association on Mount Lycaeum, a focus of ethnic identity for the Arcadians. Pan possessed a sanctuary on the south slopes of Lycaeum, where in keeping with his identity as both goat and goatherd, he offered asylum to any animal being pursued by a wolf (lykos). A votive dump excavated here revealed many late archaic and early classical bronze figures, cut-out plaques, and terracottas with hunters, men carrying animals for sacrifice, and Hermes. As at the Cretan sanctuary of Hermes at Kato Syme, where male rites of passage were celebrated in a pederastic context, both youthful and mature males are depicted in the objects from Lycaeum. The bronzes include dead foxes, a standard courtship gift presented by adult males to their favorite youths. Inscribed pots show that the sanctuary was sacred to Pan, whose role as a god of the hunt and Master of Animals made him well suited, like Hermes, to sponsor maturation rituals (Hubinger 1992).
The Athenians believed that Pan sent them a message on the eve of Marathon (490 BC) via Philippides, who ran 145 miles to ask for aid from the Spartans. Passing through Arcadia, he saw an apparition of the god, who asked why the Athenians did not honor him in spite of the good deeds that he had done and would yet do for them. When they learned of Pan’s epiphany, the Athenians concluded that he had contributed to the victory at Marathon and instituted his worship with an annual festival including a torch race. Pan’s official sanctuary was a grotto on the northwest slope of the Acropolis, but he quickly became a resident of the Attic countryside, where he was worshiped together with the nymphs and other rustic gods in numerous cave shrines. Contrary to the practice in Arcadia, where Pan was a tutelary god with temples and sanctuaries like those of other deities, the rest of the Greek world viewed the cave as the proper dwelling for this god of the wild places. After 490 BC, the cults at these caves, including one near Marathon, gained a wider and more affluent clientele who dedicated pots, small metal items, and marble votive reliefs. Menander’s comedy Dyscolus is set at one such shrine, the cave at Phyle in Attica. In the play, Pan rewards a pious maiden by causing a wealthy youth to fall in love with her, and punishes her neglectful father Cnemon, whose sour misanthropy offends against the god’s rule of laughter and good cheer.
Folk traditions connected Pan with mysterious noises, particularly the echoes heard in mountainous terrain, with ‘‘panic,’’ the phenomenon of sudden terror, seemingly without cause, that comes over armies in the night; and with certain types of illness involving apparent possession by the god (seizures). Pan’s theriomorphism and association with madness also brought him into connection with ecstatic forms of worship such as the cults of Dionysus and the Great Mother, though always as a subordinate figure. Pan’s cult took root in Boeotia as a pendant to that of the Mother, as we learn from the Theban poet Pindar (fr. 96 Snell), who calls Pan ‘‘the dog of Meter.’’ One of the manifestations of the Theban Cabiri was the father-and-son pair Hermes and Pan, who acted as attendants on a mother goddess. Similarly at Lycosura in Arcadia, the sanctuary of Pan was located beside that of Demeter and Despoena. It boasted an eternal flame and verse oracles delivered by Arcas’ wife, the nymph Erato, which visitors were permitted to read (Pausanias 8.37.11).
World History
