Pan is a rustic god of shepherds and wild places; he is also known to cause "panic"--a sudden irrational terror. He was not, as has sometimes been assumed from his name, any sort of universal deity. *

Myth

Pan, the child of Hermes and the daughter of Dryops, was born with horns and feet of a goat. Hermes was delighted, and brought his new son to Olympos to show him off, where all the gods thought he was splended.

Pan was known for his love affairs, which sometimes ended badly, as with his passion for Echo, who fled him until she became, well, an echo.

Worship

Originally a god of Arcadian shepherds, Pan's worship later spread through Greece, where he was often honored along with the nymphs, in caves and grottos.

References

• Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1985.
• Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth, Volumes 1 and 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1993.
• Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. Thames and Hudson, London, 1951.
• Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Folk Religion. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1940.
• Parke, H.W. Festivals of the Athenians. Thames and Hudson, London, 1977.