(symbolic representation of Pan as everything in the universe)

Pan was an ancient Arcadian pastoral god who protected herds, flocks, and beehives. He also guided hunters to their quarry. He was said to have the body of a man but the hairy legs, horns, and ears of a goat. He was bearded, and is sometimes shown with a short, bushy tail. His unrefined face bore a perpetual lecherous leer.

Pan spent his evenings reveling with the mountain nymphs, and his afternoons sleeping off the effects of his debauchery in a cave. One of his greatest boasts was that he had coupled sexually with all of the Maenads, the attendant nymphs of the god of wine, Dionysus. He had also seduced Selene, the goddess of the moon, by disguising his dark goat-hair with newly-washed white fleeces. Robert Graves fondly called him "the disreputable old goat-legged Arcadian god" (The Greek Myths, vol. one, section 21-c).

Those who lived in Arcadia, a rustic mountainous region of Greece, would not play music in the afternoons for fear of waking sleeping Pan and incurring his wrath, which took the form of a wild cry that made the hair stand up on the necks of those who heard it. The god was renown for his ability to cause blind, unreasoning "panic" in the hearts of human beings -- see Machen's story The Great God Pan elsewhere on this site.

The name Pan does not mean "all" although this meaning was so often applied to his name that it gained a certain degree of authority through repeated use. Rather, the name Pan is believe to be derived from the Greek paein, "to pasture." In the illustration at the top of this page Pan is shown as a giant who encompasses everything in the universe. In his left hand, he holds the seven heavenly spheres of the planets, which are linked with the musical notes of the seven reeds of his instrument, the Panpipes or syrinx.

Pan was credited with the invention of the Panpipes, and reputed to be a great musician. Graves mentions the legend that the clever god Hermes copied a set of pipes that Pan let fall, claimed it as his own creation, then sold it to Apollo. Pan was also renowned as the god of prophecy. Apollo is supposed to have induced Pan to reveal this secret, then to have seized the Delphic Oracle and forced its priestess to serve him.

The paternity of Pan is uncertain. He was variously said to have been the son of Cronus, Zeus and Hermes. Although he was considered to be quite ancient, he was not a resident of Mount Olympus, but confined to the Earth, and was held in disrespect by the Olympian deities.

Robert Graves asserts that Pan "stands for the 'devil' or 'upright man' of the Arcadian fertility cult, which closely resembled the witch-cult of North-western Europe. This man, dressed in a goat-skin, was the chosen lover of the Maenads during their drunken orgies on the high mountains, and sooner or later paid for his privilege with death" (The Greek Myths, vol. one, section 26-1).

The name "Maenad" was applied not only to the nymphs of Dionysus but also to his frenzied all-female worshippers, who were said to become intoxicated with devotion during their rituals and to tear to pieces any man unfortunate enough to be in their presence. By "upright man" a man with an erect penis is intended. Graves believed that these women were tattooed all over their bodies with a web pattern.

During the Renaissance, Pan became one model for the Devil, who often took on Pan's cloven feet, his hairy goat's legs, and his goat's horns. This rustic aspect of the Devil most often appears in the guise of the incubus who was said to visit witches in their beds at night for sexual purposes. If the speculation of Graves and Margaret Murray is correct, the witches of Europe were carrying on an ancient tradition of orgiastic nature worship at their sabbats. Perhaps the authorities of the Christian Church were not so far mistaken in giving the god of the witches the appearance of ancient Pan.

Because the European Devil was modeled after Pan, and because the Greek god was associated with primal terror and unbridled lechery, he qualifies as a demon in the eyes of the Christian Church, and merits inclusion in this portrait gallery.