FAUN

FAUN (in Latin Faunus), the name given in the Roman mythology to a class of deities or genii supposed to inhabit the forests and groves, and who were particularly reverenced by husbandmen. The fauni correspond to the Greek panes, and are confounded by the Roman poets with the satyrs, which chiefly differed from the panes and fauni by the want of horns. The fauns are usually represented as of human form, but with the tail of a goat, pointed ears, short horns, and a flat turned-up nose; sometimes with the feet of a goat; and generally clothed in the shaggy skin of some beast. They delighted more particularly in vineyards; and are frequently described as wearing crowns of ivy or of vine-leaves, because, like the satyrs, they belonged to the train of Bacchus. The poets describe them as of a half-brutal nature, and devoted to pleasure and sensuality;—a character strongly impressed on most of the ancient statues of fauns that have come down to us. Among the most celebrated of these are—the old faun dancing, in the Florentine museum—the young faun playing on a flute—and the sleeping faun, now in the gallery at Munich. These rural deities were regarded as the descendants of Faunus, one of the early kings of Latium, who in later times

was worshipped as presiding over fields, herds, and shepherds, and also as an oracular divinity. He is thus identified with the Greek Pan—the Mendes of the Egyptians. The festival of the Faunalia, celebrated on the fifth of December by the country people, had reference to Faunus as the protector of agriculture and cattle; and sacrifices were also offered to him at Rome on the ides of February. In his prophetic capacity he was supposed to reveal the future to man, partly in dreams, and partly by mysterious voices in certain sacred groves, one near Tibur, around the well Albunea, and another on the Aventine mount.