Glimpses of the Left..

of reeds. The wind blowing through the reeds produced such a
sound that Pan made a pipe from them. This love for music reveals a
nature of Pan. Since earliest times music has been the
of sensibility. The music of Orpheus had the power to tame even
the wildest beasts. It could stop the flow of a river and move the
mountains. Music was a reflection of the cosmic in the universe:
the of order balance the structured the savage.
Pan's love for music also signifies his twofold nature: on the one hand he is
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and on the other hand: and sensitive. Hence his
relation to the satyrs and the fauns which reflect two aspects of nature:
- wild and unbridled lust and and fauns - the
or as their synthesis.
Pan unites all these elements as a force
f",."ncr·",r. ,rh ....
However, Pan was not always worshipped with music and singing. It was
believed that at noon he rests in shadowy caves or deep in the woods.
were to disturb his thought that when he
he can bring "panic" (the word derived from his name, the Greek
"panikon" "fear of Pan"), the paralyzing fear upon unfortunate
travelers who his rest. The time of Pan's was known as
hour". It was the time of the day when the heat was most severe, the
wind ceased and there was a solemn silence. Birds stopped and all
animals were sleepy and tired. In the Middle when Pan came to be
identified with the devil, the noontime silence was thought to be the time
of demons and evil Pan became "the demon of the noontide" who
plagued humans with fatigue, weakness and unwillingness to work, which
was believed to be a result of demonic It was thought that the
demon of the noontide left a person in the evening, when the
sun heat faded and the midday fatigue disappeared.
a relatively small number of descriptions of celebrations and
ceremonies devoted to Pan, his cult is often associated with the of
and His celebrations were identified with the
ecstatic cult of Dionysus, the god of fertility, wine and intoxication.
they involved and ecstatic dancing - pertormled
or by the
companions of this Greek deity. The dancing retinue of Dionysus
processed through the woods with torches and held celebrations
in honour of their patron. It was similar with the cult Pan. He had many
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