118 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



PAN, OR NATURE 

 Explained of Natural Philosophy 



&quot;THE ancients have, with great exactness, delineated 

 universal nature under the person of Pan. They leave his 

 origin doubtful: some asserting him the son of Mercury, 

 and others the common offspring of all Penelope s suitors. 

 The latter supposition doubtless occasioned some later 

 writers to entitle this ancient fable, Penelope a thing fre 

 quently practiced when the early relations are applied to 

 more modern characters and persons, though sometimes 

 with great absurdity and ignorance, as in the present case: 

 for Pan was one of the ancientest gods, and long before the 

 time of Ulysses: besides, Penelope was venerated by an 

 tiquity for her matronal chastity. A third sort will have 

 him the issue of Jupiter and Hybris, that is, Reproach. 

 But whatever his origin was, the Destinies are allowed 

 his sisters. 



&quot;He is described by antiquity with pyramidal horns 

 reaching up to heaven, a rough and shaggy body, a very 

 long beard, of a biform figure, human above, half-brute 

 below, ending in goat s feet. His arms, or ensigns of power, 

 are a pipe in his left hand, composed of seven reeds; in his 

 right a crook; and he wore for his mantle a leopard s skin. 



&quot;His attributes and titles were, the god of hunters, shep 

 herds, and all the rural inhabitants; president of the moun 

 tains, and after Mercury the next messenger of the gods. 

 He was also held the leader and ruler of the Nymphs, who 

 continually danced and frisked about him, attended with 

 the Satyrs, and their elders the Sileni. He had also the 

 power of striking terrors, especially such as were vain and 

 superstitious; whence they came to be called panic terrors. a 



&quot;Few actions are recorded of him; only a principal one 

 is, that he challenged Cupid at wrestling, and was worsted. 

 He also catched the giant Typhon ia a net, and held him 

 fast. They relate further of him, that when Ceres growing 



1 Hymn to Pan, Horn. Odyss. ver. Jin. 2 Cicero, Epis. to Atticus, 5. 



