Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

The nineteenth Homeric Hymn sings Pan, the mixed god—goat-footed, two-horned, noisy lover of noise—who haunts snowy ridges, mountain peaks, and rocky paths. Hermes the messenger lay with the nymph Dryope (or a daughter of Dryops) in Arcadian woodlands; she bore a son marvelous to see: full-bearded at birth, with goat’s legs and horns. The nurse fled in fear; Hermes caught up the child, wrapped him in hare-skins, and carried him rejoicing to Olympus. The gods all delighted—especially Dionysus—and named him Pan because he pleased them *all* (*pantes*). Thereafter the hymn shows him in his proper haunts: he wanders the wild, joins the nymphs in dance at evening, and from a high lookout plays the syrinx so sweetly that no bird can surpass him. At times he slips through thickets hunting; at times he returns to soft streams. The poem ends with a customary farewell and promise of another song. Unlike Ovid’s erotic chase for the pipes’ invention, the Hymn grounds Pan’s identity in Arcadian birth, Olympian acceptance, and the etymology of his name—goatish terror to mortals, delight to the deathless gods.