Legends in Stone
Plate XXXIVRetinueWilderness

Pan&Faunus

Shepherds, Wilderness, & Panic

Graecia

Pan

Pan, the Goat-Footed

Sacred Attributes

Pipes of reeds, goat legs, pine, the panic cry

Historical Origins

An Arcadian mountain god of herds and wild places, older than the Olympian order.

Personality & Character

Lusty, lazy and terrifying when disturbed — his shout causes irrational panic.

Cult & Sacrifice

Milk, honey, and the first fruits, offered in caves.

Cultural Ethos

The wilderness as a place of both fertility and unreasoning fear.

Roma

Faunus

Faunus, the Prophesying Wood

Sacred Attributes

Horn, goatskin, laurel, the sacred grove

Historical Origins

An Italic woodland oracular god who gave answers in dreams at his grove.

Personality & Character

A solemn, prophetic wood-spirit rather than a prancing satyr.

Cult & Sacrifice

The Faunalia: goats, wine and milk offered in the fields.

Cultural Ethos

The forest as a source of prophecy and rustic law.

Syncretism Analysis

Greek Pan is the noisy god of panic; Roman Faunus is a quiet woodland oracle consulted in dreams. Rome took the goat-god and gave him a more respectable, pastoral dignity.

Modern Reception

Percy Jackson & the OlympiansNovelGod of WarVideo GameHades IIVideo Game

Elsewhere in Retinue