The irrepressible passion of the Greek gods for love adventures sometimes translated into creatures that looked peculiar or strange at the very least. It is the case of the god Breadabout whose birth there are several myths and whose love affairs were famous on Olympus.
God Pan: myths about his origin
The most widespread myth about the origin of the god Pan is that was born from a brief relationship that Hermes, the messenger of the gods, had with a nymph.
Perhaps because his father, at that time, was herding a herd of goats, The child was born with the legs, tail, horns and ears of a goat.. His mother, seeing him, pushed him away in horror; Not so Hermes, who, enamored of him, picked him up and took him to Olympus.
He was well received there and He received the name Pan, which means “all.” and that it was given to him because it is reputed that his very presence rejoiced all the gods.
Now, although that is the most widespread version about the birth of the god Pannot the only one: up to nineteen genealogies are told about this god. One of the most shocking is the one that does son of Penelope, the wife of the hero Odysseus (the Ulysses of the Romans), who in the absence of her husband would have consoled herself with a multitude of lovers.
The most aberrant version of its origin is the one that makes Pan, son of the loves between the shepherd Cratis and a goat.
As an adult, Pan became the god of shepherds and flocksas well as in the fertility of the fields.
Pan received that last attribute for his prodigious sexual activity. When it came to satisfying her, he made no distinction between girls and boys.
Unfortunate loves of the god Pan
One of his most famous loves was the one he felt for the nymph Pitis, who was also sought after by Boreasthe cold north wind. Jealous, Boreas threw her from the top of a rock, although Gaea, Mother Earthhe managed to save her at the last moment metamorphosing it into a pine tree. From that moment on, the leaves of that tree became one of Pan’s attributes.
Another, the flute, was also born from a unfortunate love, the one that Pan felt for the nymph Syrinx. This, in order not to fall into his arms, ended transformed into a cane field. With their reeds, Pan made a flutewhich he called syringa in memory of the nymph, although it is also known as “Pan’s flute.”
To the sound of that syringe, Pan brightened the festivities of Dionysus, the god of wine, of whom he was one of his most boisterous companions. Another was Silenus, a satyr with an excessive fondness for wine, whom some traditions make the son of Pan and a nymph.
The cult of the god Pan
QIt was still associated above all with Arcadiaa region of the Peloponnese famous for its shepherds. In her, the center of her cult was in the Mount Lyceum, where Zeus was also worshiped. In Arcadia itself, in the city of Lycosura, Pan was venerated in a sanctuary.
The Athenians dedicated one of the grottoes of the Acropolis to him. They did this as a token of gratitude for the god’s announcement that they would defeat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In honor of Pan, the Athenians also held a torch race. every year.