Blessing: Pan is a complex entity, found everywhere from rugged hillsides to the walls of Athens. Although he is most often seen in a rural setting, he was not unknown in cities and on battlefields. Primarily a god of the woodlands and the liminal places, he is most often concerned with issues such as hunting, music, dance and sex. He is also a god of healing; his shrines offered supplicants healing dreams.
Epithets: Aigokerôs (goat-horned), Agrios (wild), Limenitês (protector of the harbor), Lutêrios (deliverer), Mainalios (of Mount Maenalus), Nomios (of the fields and flocks), Phorbas (terrifying)
Equated With: Dionysos, Seilenos, Faunus, Min, Osiris, Serapis
Associations: syrinx, goat, sheep, ram, milk, honey, must, goats, Indian hemp, orchis root, musk, civet, thistle
Festivals:
Kunegia (6 Xanthikos)
Festival of Mendesian Pan (2 Apellaios)
Festival of Pan of the Mountains (27 Pan¨¥mos)
Ways to honor: Dance, sing, spend time in the wild or in liminal – “in between” – places. Enjoy eating, drinking and sex. Be aware, however, that one of Pan’s attributes is the giving, the bestowing of madness. Be careful what you wish for ….
See also Dancing God and The Goat Foot God from Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Ancient Texts:
Excerpts from Bibliotheca Historica by Diodorus Siculus
Excerpt from Fabulae by Hyginus
Excerpts from Geographica by Strabo
Excerpt from The Histories by Herodotus
Homeric Hymn XIX (To Pan)
Orphic Hymn XI (To Pan)
Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Texts: Forthcoming
Modern Texts:
Dancing God by Diotima Sophia
Hymn to Pan III by Rebecca Buchanan
Pan’s Mistake by P Sufenas Virius Lupus
Those Whom the Gods Would Destroy …. by Diotima Sophia
To Goat-Footed Pan by Amanda Aremisia Forrester
To Pan by Samantha Frye
Festivals and Rituals: Forthcoming
Articles:
The Origins of the Goat-Foot God by Diotima Sophia
Reports of My Death …. by Diotima Sophia
Links:
neosalexandria 