Hermes fathered Pan, the goat-footed god of shepherds and wild places, by the nymph Dryope on the slopes of Arcadia. The newborn's horns and hooves so frightened his mother that she fled, but Hermes wrapped the child in a hare skin and carried him to Olympus, where the gods delighted in him.
⚠ Homeric Hymn 19 names Dryope as Pan's mother; Apollodorus gives Penelope (daughter of Dryops, not Odysseus's wife); Herodotus 2.145 names Penelope daughter of Odysseus.
Pan and the river nymph Symaethis sired Acis, the Sicilian shepherd youth whose love for the sea-nymph Galatea would bring him into fatal conflict with the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Penelope bore Pan after the fall of Troy, according to Herodotus, who recorded this as a Peloponnesian tradition linking the goat-god to the house of Odysseus.
⚠ This genealogy was rejected by most ancient authorities. The dominant tradition names Hermes as Pan's father by a nymph. Some variants claim all the suitors collectively fathered Pan, a folk etymology linking 'Pan' to 'all.'
Pan loved the nymph Pitys, who returned his affection. When the jealous Boreas hurled her from a cliff, the earth transformed her into a pine tree sacred to Pan, whose resin weeps when the north wind blows.
Pan seduced the moon goddess Selene by disguising himself in a white fleece, luring her into the Arcadian woods with the gleam of wool under moonlight.
Pan joined Dionysus's wild retinue, accompanying the god during his campaigns and revels. Pan's music enlivened Dionysian festivals and processions throughout the Greek world.
Pan and Faunus are the Greek and Roman gods of the wild, both half-goat nature spirits haunting forests and mountainsides. Evander brought Pan's Arcadian cult to the Palatine, where the Romans knew his rites as the Lupercalia of Faunus.
The Greeks identified Min with Pan, naming Min's cult centre Akhmim as Panopolis. Both shared associations with fertility, virility, and pastoral life.
Hermes and Pan stole Zeus's severed sinews from the Corycian Cave where Typhon had hidden them under the guard of the she-dragon Delphyne, restoring the king of the gods to full strength.
Pan challenged Apollo to a musical contest judged by Tmolus. Apollo won with his lyre, but King Midas dissented, earning Apollo's punishment of donkey ears.
Pan gave Artemis her hunting dogs, contributing to her role as divine huntress. In Callimachus's hymn, Artemis received the dogs directly from Pan in Arcadia.
Pan and Boreas both pursued the nymph Pitys. When she chose Pan, the jealous North Wind dashed her against a cliff, killing her. Her transformation into a pine tree made it sacred to Pan.
Pan taught the shepherd Daphnis to play the pipes in the hills of Sicily. In Theocritus's Idylls, Daphnis is Pan's protégé and the inventor of pastoral song, grieved by Pan at his death.
Pan pursued the nymph Echo through the mountains. In Longus's version, Pan drove shepherds mad and they tore Echo apart, scattering her voice across the earth to repeat sounds forever.
Pan found the distraught Psyche by a riverbank after Eros fled. The rustic god recognized her lovesickness and counseled her to win back Eros through prayer and devotion rather than despair.
Pan pursued the naiad Syrinx through Arcadia until she was transformed into marsh reeds by the river nymphs. Pan cut the reeds and fashioned them into the pan pipes, his signature instrument.
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