Orighi of 'Mi/thologt/. 195 



alledg'cs that Fan and Faun, are the same cllvinity, and 

 both represent the sun, the soul of the world, and of all 

 nature. Boehart supposes Paji and Faunto be the same ; 

 hut he assigns a different, and in my opinion, the true 

 etymology of the word. 



The ancients considered Pan as the god of shepherds, 

 fi monster in appearance, with horns on liis head, having 

 a flat nose, and his lower limbs like those of a gont. His 

 residence was in forests and on ruc-jred mountains. In 

 these descriptions, we discover the origin of this pre- 

 tended deity, whose characteristic was to ei^cite sudden 

 terror. We retain the evidence of his origin in the word 

 panic, not from Pan, a captain of Bacelius, who, with a 

 icw men, routed an army, by means of echoes in a val- 

 'ley, as Polyrenus alledges ; nor from the terror, with 

 which Pan struck the hearts of the giants, in the wars of 

 the Titans ; but from the -Celtic word ovan, or obhan, 

 which signifies fear, terror. 



Bochart observes that Pan is found in Psalm Ixxxviii. 

 15. njiiJK i^'rx inxi:-j. " While I suffer thy terrors, I am 

 distracted," or, I suffer thy t^^nors, so as to be astonished 

 or confounded. " Portavi terrores tuos, ita ut obstu- 

 pescam," as Schmidt has rendered the words. — The 

 word here rendered, distracted, is evidently from the 

 same root as the Celtic ovan^ v and p being convertible, 

 and frequently changed, the one into the other. — Pcui 

 tjierefore is merely fear, or terror ; and in process pi' 

 time, the meaning of the name being lost among the 

 Greeks and Romans, this name was mistaken for that cd' 

 a real being, and deified. — If we consider the defenceless 

 state of savage men, condemned to roam in the forest in 

 quest of food, perpetually exposed to the attacks of wild 

 beasts, we shall be at no loss to account- for the origin of 

 -the god of terror, nor for his residence in woods and on 

 rugged mountains, nor for the frightful figures under 

 which he was represented.* 



* Asiat. Res. i. 267. — CInver, lib. i. 25. — Fabcr, i. 1(30. — Gebolin, 



iv. 418 Bochart. Geog. Sac. Canaan, lib. i. ca. 18, Paiisanias, lib. 



X. ca. 23, infornis u.s that terror, productd without apparent cause, 



4s sent by Pan. Let it be remarked, that the Cehic b/i, in Irish, ai;<; 



pronounced as v. Ohhan in Irish, is precisely the Welch ovan ; and 



F, P and /''■, are perpetually interchanged in the ancient languages. 



