in Pagan worship, the son of Mercury and Penelope (the wife of Ulysses), who was ravished by that god in the form of a white goat, while she was keeping her father's flocks. He was educated on Mount Menelaus, in Arcadia, by Since, and the other nymphs, whom he attracted by his music. He afterwards distinguished himself in the war with the giants, when he entangled Typhon in his nets. He attended Bacchus in his Indian expedition; and when the Gauls were about to pillage the temple of Delphos, he struck them with such a sudden consternation by night, that they fled, though... though none pursued them. He had a contest with Cupid; but was conquered by the little god, who punished him, by inspiring him with a passion for the nymph Syrinx, who treated him with disdain; but he eloquently pursuing her, overtook her by the river Ladon, when, invoking the Naiads, she was changed into a tuft of reeds, which the disappointed lover grasped in his arms; but observing, that as they trembled with the wind, they formed a murmuring sound, he made of them the pipe for which he became so famous. He charmed Luna in the shape of a beautiful ram, and had several other amours.

Pan is represented with a smiling ruddy face, a thick beard, with the horns, legs, feet, and tail of a goat; holding a shepherd's crook in one hand, and his pipe of unequal reeds in the other.

The abbe Banier remarks, that if ever the Greeks corrupted ancient history, it was in fabricating the fable of Pan. According to them, says Herodotus, Hercules Dionysius, or Bacchus, and Pan, were the last of all the gods; however, in the opinion of the Egyptians, Pan was one of the eight great divinities that formed the first clasps in their theology, which were the most powerful and the most ancient of all.

Diodorus makes him one of the attendants upon Osiris, in his Indian expedition. "Osiris," says this author, "took with him Pan, a person much respected throughout his dominions: for he had not only his statue afterwards placed in all the temples, but a city was built in the Thebaid; which, in honour of Pan, was called Chemmis, or Chamma, a word that signifies in the Egyptian language the city of Pan."

The same author, however, tells us, that he was the leader of a troop of fauns and satyrs, or wild and rustic men, much addicted to fingering, dancing, and feats of activity, who were presented to Osiris in Ethiopia, and with whom that prince was so much pleased, that he retained them in his service.

Pan was regarded by the Egyptians, after his apotheosis, as the god who presided over the whole universe, as Ἀπόλλων, ὁ πάντων, implies. He represented nature and festivity; and was god of the woods and fields, wholly taken up with the pleasures of a country life; dancing constantly with the fauns and satyrs; and running after the nymphs, to whom he was such a terror, that it is supposed the word panic is derived from Panici terrores, with which those who were said to have seen him were seized. Apuleius, however, gives an agreeable description of him. "By chance the god Pan happened to be seated on a little eminence near a river; and, always constant in his love to the nymph Syrinx, transformed into a reed, he taught her to produce all kinds of agreeable sounds, while his goats were skipping round him, and feeding on the banks."

Lucian describes him as the companion, minister, and counsellor of Bacchus. He was a kind of Scrub, a drudge fit for all work, having been occasionally employed in the capacity of shepherd, musician, dancer, huntman, and soldier. In short, he served not only as maestro di capello, in directing the Bacchanals, but was so expert in playing upon flutes, and was such an excellent piper on the flutula, that Bacchus was never happy without him.

He was particularly honoured in Arcadia, where the shepherds offered him milk and honey in wooden bowls: when successful in hunting, they gave him a part of the spoils; but if they caught nothing, they shewed their resentment by whipping his image.

The Romans adopted him amongst their deities under the names of Lupercus and Lyceus.