No, I won’t discuss Pan’s actual anatomy. That would be pointless because, as a spirit, Pan can appear any way He likes.
What I will tell you is who He is, or who I’ve seen Him to be anyhow.
Your mileage may vary, since deities can be all sorts of different things with their humans.
I think that we’ve become so fixated on Pan’s famous libido and fear that we’ve forgotten He is other things too.
So let’s begin with a short list of Pan’s areas of responsibility as a deity.
He is a god of:
- shepherds and flocks
- hunting and death
- forests
- fertility and sex
- prophecy
- music and dance
- fear, specifically sudden panic
Now let’s unpack these a bit. Some of His aspects seem to interlock in various ways, so we really can’t put His aspects into separate compartments and stick labels on them.
Therefore, I prefer to consider Pan in a more holistic way.
Shepherd & Hunter
For instance, since Pan is a god of shepherds, did you know how much He values meeting needs? After all, a good shepherd has to provide food, water, shelter, and other things for their flock.
So when Pan is interacting as a shepherd god, He can be kind, gentle, protective and reliably caring.
Not quite what you’d expect from Him, is it?
Then if we consider the more bestial part of Pan that is the king of the flock, the head buck if you will, we can see some of how His territorial animal nature dovetails with His shepherd self.
He is driven to care for and protect His own, and like a shepherd, His beast-like aspect will kill to protect His flock.
Pan is also a god of the hunt, and this more violent side of Him could also interlock with His shepherd aspect who kills predators attacking the flock.
Yet His hunter aspect also kills to maintain the balance of things and procure sustenance for His dogs.
God of Sex & Death
Yes, Pan is a fertility god concerned with engendering life. To facilitate this, He does have quite a lot of ‘baseline’ lust one might say.
It’s possible that some things which need to be fucked to life aren’t always attractive enough to stir the blood. So possessing an extra helping of lust might help certain parts of that process along.
Have you ever noticed that fertility deities often seem to be well acquainted with death?
And Pan, as the Lord of the Forest, is no exception. All that living matter has to be composted at some point in the cycle of life, and He presides over that death.
No, I’m not saying Pan is the Greek deity of death – He’s not. That’s Thanatos, if you’re curious.
Well, there are other Greek gods of various types of death too, but we’re not discussing them now.
But because Pan is a deity of life and fertility, He is also a deity of death in certain ways. He has to be, in order to understand and manage the forest’s cycle of life and death.
Now we can see His devouring aspect more clearly. Someone has to help with the composting of dead things, so He does that too.
Therefore, Pan has been worshiped as Pangenetor, the All-begetter, and Panphage, the All-devourer, possibly because He facilitates those functions.
Prophet & Musician
Let’s not forget that Pan is also a god of prophecy, so He can look into the future and predict what will happen.
Some myths assert that He taught Apollo to prophesy, so Pan has been at this a long while and knows what He’s doing.
There are also the musical aspects of Pan as piper and leaper. Now He dances over the mountaintops, while the rocks sing under His hooves. He rushes here and there, roving through His forest with joy and abandon.
Pan’s talent on the panpipes, the Syrinx that he invented, is legendary.
He adores improvised music, the creative turning of musical phrases on the spur of the moment, and prefers spontaneous tunes that pour from one’s heart.
Creativity & Balance
Since gods are complex, multi-faceted people not easily comprehended, our small human minds will likely never fully understand Pan.
Yet if we look, we might catch a glimpse of how He gives Himself to service and to creativity.
We might watch how Pan serves the needs of His flock and His forest, balancing life and death to create the end result He envisions.
And we might begin to see how He interacts passionately with both creating life and recycling it for future use, using joy as fuel for the whole process.
But even this is an oversimplification of Him, for the purposes of this brief introduction.
Panic Terror
One more thing. Let’s talk about His famous terror, because Pan’s name is where we get the word ‘panic’ in the first place.
I think it’s easy to be afraid of Pan, fearing that He just runs around scaring people for fun. But that’s generally not His game.
If He’s using fear, there’s usually a good reason for it.
He may strike terror into human hearts to defend something He cares about, as when He terrified an invading army in ancient times so that they killed their own men. Or so the myth goes, anyway.
Or Pan may be using panic to teach reverence.
His myths state that those waking Him from His daily nap in the forest got His terrifying yell. There are more layers of meaning to those stories, but we’ll explore those another time.
While Pan can be quite casual and familiar with His worshipers, He does prefer that His forests be treated with respect.
Those who threaten something He values or who need to learn reverence may find themselves feeling that prickle of fear on the back of their neck.
If it seems like Pan is scaring you, examine your behavior or motivations and maybe do some divination.
See if you’re disrespecting His values and align yourself more closely with them. Admit your mistake, approach Him with the reverence a god deserves, and perhaps make an offering to Him.
Giving Offerings
You don’t have to offend Pan to offer things to Him, though.
Offerings to the gods are usually an essential part of developing relationships with them.
Reciprocity is seriously a thing with Greek deities, so we give gifts to them and they give things to us.
The whole cycle repeats and continues while relationships deepen and eventually we know one another a whole lot better.
What offerings does Pan like? Oh, lots of things, but here are a few suggestions.
Those who play an instrument or sing could make an offering of improvised music to Him. If you can, let it express your emotions at the moment.
Or if you read written music, dedicate a fun piece to Him and play or sing it as an offering.
You could put on some music and dance for Him. Maybe that music is kinda sexy and you dance shamelessly.
Pan doesn’t much care for social propriety, so don’t worry about what you look like while dancing. Just enjoy it!
Perhaps you’re one of those cooks who just throws things together and creates delicious stuff?
Then you might offer Him some of your food. He seems to enjoy things that are spontaneously created with passion and joy.
Or go hike in a forest and pick up trash. Pan loves that, because you’re showing respect.
Pause and marvel at nature’s balance, and it’s always a good time to talk to Pan in the forest.
You don’t need to recite an Orphic hymn – you can just tell Him how you feel and what you’re thinking.
If you’re into gardening, you might plant stuff and care for it in Pan’s name. Or conversely, ask Him to help you rip weeds out of an overgrown flowerbed and do it with joy, thinking of the potential for new growth.
In either case, you might feel some of His energy as god of fertility or death.
No matter how you give offerings to Pan, thank Him for listening and interacting with you.
If you felt some of His energy during an offering, savor the gift of His presence with humility.
Focus on Service
We humans need to remember that serving the gods is not about us, it’s about them.
They are our honored guests and while certain deities might care about us and get involved with our lives, others will not. And it’s all fine.
So Pan may interact with you or not, and that’s His choice.
Regardless, offering things to Him and the other gods is usually appreciated.
Is there more to Pan than this? Yes, much more. But we’ll start with this overview and delve deeper in the future. Happy offerings!