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Mythographia

    Pan

    Pan is the son of Hermes, born with goat's feet and two horns, so strange that his own mother fled from him at birth. The Homeric Hymn to Pan says every god who saw him, Dionysus most of all, was delighted rather than repelled - the reason later tradition gives for his name, since he pleased them all. Herodotus separately describes Pan appearing to the runner Philippides before Marathon to ask why Athens honored him so little.

    A laughing, goat-horned face playing panpipes, engraved in bronze linework inside a circular medallion frame.
    Illustration, not a source

    Pan, goat-legged god of the wild

    Generated by AI from this page's own facts, not an ancient image or evidence of anything. How this site uses generated images

    By Reviewed by Mythographia Editorial Team

    Core Myth

    The Homeric Hymn to Pan tells his birth as a story of shock turning into delight. Hermes, tending sheep in service to a mortal man, fell in love with the daughter of Dryops and fathered a son so strange, goat-footed, two-horned, loud and laughing from the moment he could stand, that his own mother fled in fear the instant she saw him. Hermes felt no such fear; he wrapped the child in the skin of a mountain hare and carried him up to Olympus, delighted, to show the other gods. Every immortal who saw him was glad in heart, the hymn says, Dionysus most of all - and it is that universal delight the hymn gives as the reason for his name, since he pleased them all, Pan being the Greek word for "all." Herodotus's Histories records a different, older-sounding account of his parentage current among some Greeks: that Pan's parents were Hermes and Penelope, the wife Odysseus left behind on Ithaca, which would place Pan's birth generations later than the version the Homeric Hymn tells. Herodotus uses this disagreement to make a separate point about Pan's age relative to the Egyptian god he compares him to, noting the Greek Pan is a comparatively recent figure next to his far older Egyptian counterpart.

    Who are Pan's parents?

    The Homeric Hymn to Pan names Hermes as his father and the daughter of Dryops as his mother, a nymph who fled in fear the moment she saw her own strange, goat-footed child, leaving Hermes to raise him with delight instead of fear.

    Homeric Hymn to Pan 1-30

    Why is Pan's name explained as meaning "all"?

    The Homeric Hymn says every one of the immortals who saw the newborn Pan was glad in heart, Dionysus especially, and gives that universal delight as the reason he was named Pan - because he had pleased all of them, not because of any connection to the natural world as a whole.

    Homeric Hymn to Pan 34-47

    Is there disagreement about who Pan's mother was?

    Yes. Where the Homeric Hymn names an unnamed daughter of Dryops, Herodotus records a separate Greek tradition naming Penelope, Odysseus's own wife, as Pan's mother - a version that would place his birth much later, after the Trojan War, rather than in the older generation the Hymn implies.

    Herodotus, Histories 2.145-2.146

    What did Pan ask of the Athenians before the Battle of Marathon?

    According to Herodotus, Pan appeared to the runner Philippides in the mountains above Tegea and asked why the Athenians paid him so little attention, despite his goodwill toward them and the help he had given and would give again - a complaint Athens answered afterward with a shrine and annual sacrifices below the Acropolis.

    Herodotus, Histories 6.105-6.106

    Did Pan ever appear in Roman myth in a similar role?

    Yes, though under his own separate identity as much as through direct equation with the Roman god Faunus - Virgil's Georgics tells a story of Pan deceiving the moon goddess Luna with a gift of white wool, showing the same Pan operating within a Roman literary tradition rather than only a Greek one.

    Virgil, Georgics 3.391-393

    Later Traditions

    Herodotus also preserves Pan's most famous appearance in history rather than myth: before the Battle of Marathon, he came to the Athenian runner Philippides in the mountains above Tegea and asked why Athens paid him so little honor despite his goodwill and past help, and his promise of help again. Athens answered by establishing a shrine and yearly sacrifices to him below the Acropolis - a rare case of a god's complaint producing a real, datable civic response rather than only a story.

    Lineage

    See the full family tree

    1 recorded relation, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Parents

    • Hermes Homeric Hymn to Pan 1-30

      The Homeric Hymn to Pan names Hermes as the father, with Pan's own page noting a separate ancient tradition around his mother's identity.

    Also Connected

    2 recorded connections, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Connected

    Where Accounts Differ

    • who was Pan's mother
    • Pan's mother is named differently across sources: an unnamed daughter of Dryops in the Homeric Hymn, versus Penelope in the tradition Herodotus records.

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    Mythology

    Related Terms

    Referenced By

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Homeric Hymn to Pan 1-30
    • Homeric Hymn to Pan 34-47
    • Herodotus, Histories 2.145-2.146
    • Herodotus, Histories 6.105-6.106
    Further reading
    • Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)