Pan - Greek God

Pan is distinctive among the Greek gods because of his hybrid human-animal form (theriomorphism).

The earliest images of Pan, in bronze sculpture and in a Boiotian vase painting of the early fifth century, show a goat-headed god with a human torso atop a goat’s hind legs.

Originally a guardian of the goats whose character he shares, he achieved Panhellenic status only in the fifth century, when his cult was introduced from Arkadia to Athens and rapidly diffused to the rest of the Greek world.

Many etymologies have been put forward for his name, which is also known in the compound form Aigipan (Goat-Pan). The most convincing makes it a cognate of Latin pastor, so that Pan is “one who grazes the flocks.”In Arkadia itself, Pan’s myth and cult were not standardized.

There were conflicting views of his genealogy, the most common being that he was the son of Zeus and twin of the national hero Arkas, or that he was the son of Hermes and Penelope. His connection with Zeus sprang from their association on Mt. Lykaion, the sacred mountain of the Arkadians.

Pan possessed a sanctuary on the south slopes of Lykaion, where in keeping with his identity as both goat and goatherd, he offered asylum to any animal being pursued by a wolf (lukos). A votive dump excavated here revealed many late Archaic and early Classical bronze figures, cut-out plaques, and terracottas with subjects reminiscent of those at Kato Symi: hunters, men carrying animals for sacrifice, and Hermes. Both youthful and mature males are depicted, and the bronzes include dead foxes, a standard courtship gift presented by adult males to their favorite youths. Inscribed pots show that the sanctuary was sacred to Pan, whose role as a god of the hunt and Master of Animals made him well suited, like Hermes, to sponsor maturation rituals.


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Apollodorus the library of Greek mythology

Here I would like to present you Apollodurs the Library.

I tend to cover  not only archaeological "news" that tell us about history of our planet, but also works from the ancient times that were made and read by the ancients.

Works like that and survived till our days so you could have insight into their world with their own eyes, as they saw it and understand it.

Apollodorus is such work were you can see how the ancient Greeks saw the world around them and how they used stories about heroes and Gods to explain that same world they lived in.

The only work of its kind to survive from classical antiquity, the Library of Apolodorus is a unique guide to Greek mythology, from the origins of the universe to the Trojan War.

The only work of its kind to survive from classical antiquity, the Library of Apolodorus is a unique guide to Greek mythology, from the origins oft he universe to the Trojan War.

Apollodorus’ Library has been an invaluable source book for early Greek myths from the time of its compilation in the first/second century AD to the present, influencing writers from the scolars of Byzantium to Robert Graves. It provides a complete history of Greek myth, telling the story of each of the families of heroic mythology and the various adventures associated with the main heroes and heroines, from Jason and Perseus to Heracles an Helen fo Troy. As a primary source for Greek myth, as a reference work, and as an introduction of hoe the Greeks themselves viewed their mythical traditions, the Library indispensable to anyone who has an interest in classical mythology.

APOLLODORUS is the name traditionally ascribed to the author of the Library. Although he was formely identified as Apollodorus of Athens, a distinguished Alexandrian scholar of the second century BC, it is now recognized that the Library must have been written at a later period, probably the first or second century AD. It is not know wheter Apollodorus was the author’s true name; in any case we know nothing about him...................................

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