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Thursday 27 December 2007

The Great God Pan is Dead

The Great God Pan is dead” …. These are the words that Thamus, the Egyptian sailor, proclaimed to the world, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius

Pan With Nymphs In Arcadia
Pan With Nymphs In Arcadia
 
..... Thamus was told the news by a divine voice, that wafted across the Aegean on an evening zephyr, blowing from the west one hot summer night, and that lamented the passing of "The Old God".
 
Pan dead? He who had been the saviour of mighty Athens in ages past, when he told Pheidippides that Athens needed to honour him, if they wanted his help and victory against their Persian enemies, and who had been worshipped on the Acropolis ever since ... dead? Pan the warrior god, who stood in the Athenian Phalanx at Marathon and led the war chants, dead?

Legend has it that mad Emperor Tiberius wept for the only time when he heard the news ….. but that is only legend. No, the truth is that of all the gods extant in the world when the Christ God was born, only Pan the first born, saw the future, and took steps to save himself.

For when all the classical old gods were abolished by the imperial diktat of Theodosius I on February the 27th, 390 AD, the Great God’s name was not on the list because he was already dead, everyone knew that, for hadn’t it been declared so three centuries earlier? A Christian then proclaimed "Paganism, with Theodosius dies, never to rise again".

But this was a slow death, and not all the gods died at once, for 'Old Gods' die very slowly. And a last defence and final act of defiance was in Caria in 484 AD, when a champion of the old ways, Illus, raised the Pagan standard against the Christian Emperor Zeno. Pan was there with his brothers, but four years later Illus and his “Pagan Emperor” Leontius, were executed in the Taurus mountains, and the Great God retreated back to the old places.

With this final defeat, the other Greek and Roman Gods finally left this world forever, to enter those realms that only the old gods can ever see, for has it not been written that “all things will pass!” Like them, these new gods (Jehovah and Allah) will one day leave the Earth, just as surely as the old ones have done, leaving behind just the primal one, the first born, to eventually reclaim his first kingdom.

His worshippers, the folk of the mountains and the dark places, the country folk, they have always known who was the first and true God, and they kept that in their hearts as they said their pater noster under the stern gaze of the new priests, and at the very same alters that they had once used for worshipping the old gods.

Pan knew that there were few pagans prepared to die to protect the old gods, but he had never asked for this sacrifice from his followers, and never would. The people, the country people, they knew this, and they moved the old shrines into the groves of Arcadia and those other forgotten places. Hid them from the violent imams of the other new god, awaiting the day when Pan could return to the open and reclaim his premier place in the pantheon.

The arrival of the new pagans was a brief period of revival and reinvention, for who could deny Pan his ability to reinvent himself?

He lived in the forests of Germany, and rode with the Goths as they swept away the 'Roman' God from Gaul. He was in the Saxon ships that crushed the 'Roman' God in the isle of the Britons, and he was with the Golden Hordes that swept across half of Asia and called his name as a war cry.

The Viking long ships rode the oceans with his name never far away, but it was ne'er enough, and these gains were all ephemeral, but still he survives in those dark places that even in their pomp, the new gods could never reach.

He who had been the goat god of the 'pa-on’s', and who had once been called 'Phanes' the first born. He whose first image had been with man the hunter who worshipped the lion, and whose name ‘Cerne the Sorcerer’ had long echoed through the hills of Europe and Asia, and whose cave shrine at Trois-Frères was carved 13,000 years before the appearance of any of the others.

He who was wandering the world long before the Krishna arrived, or the 'Roman' Christ God was born, long before the first fields had ever been planted and the first city stone laid, and long before the arrogant Greeks and their poet Homer had 'named' all the Gods, and written theHymn to the Great God Pan’, placing their new God Zeus above all others.

For 15,000 years his names have been legion across those millenia, "Attes, Tammuz, Nin-Girsu, Aigipan, Agrus, Baphomet, Pan, Nomios, Phaunos, Faunus, Anshar, Pashupati, Cernunnos, Lupercal, Dionysus, Azazel, Sylvanus, Cerne, Herla, Hackel, Herne, Puck, Leshi, Herlechin, Herlequin, Yang Ching, Capri, Capricorn, Harlequin, Hellequin, Hillikin, Herla, Berchtold, Berholt, Berndietrich", and in latter times "Robin Goodfellow" or the "Green Man".

He still leads the Wild Hunt through the forests of the night, and has been sighted many times across the centuries, by those travelling through the lonely places. He is not of the harsh bright deserts which bred the new gods in their emptiness, he is only of the northern bogs and forests, where both he and the world were first born.

We still remember this when we cross those lonely heaths, or walk through the forests at twilight. So while we may cross ourselves to the new god, we still leave a thought for the oldest one, he who still causes Panic in the lonely places, and occasionally Pandemonium in the crowded ones.

The kourbània sacrifice is still practised secretly in his name in Greece, but passed off as a blood sacrifice in honour of a 'saint', who was once a "protector of the woods and the fields", but whose feast day has long been abandoned by the followers of the 'Roman' Christ God.

As the powers of the new god Jehovah, or his rival Allah, eventually retreat on the tides of time, the oldest of them all will still be there, in the darkness, waiting to reclaim the world that is left. The world after the decline, when technology has gone and the cities have fallen. The world of man that is nearer to the end, than it is to the beginning.

As it was at the beginning, so it shall be at the end .... Pan the Great God Lives.

Pan Often Took An Earthier Form For Worship
Pan Often Took An Earthier Form For Worship


Homers Hymn to the Great God.

Muse, tell me about Pan,
the dear son of Hermes,
with his goat's feet and two horns –
a lover of merry noise.


Through wooded glades he wanders with dancing nymphs
who foot it on some sheer cliff's edge,
calling upon Pan,
the shepherd-god, long-haired, unkempt.

He has every snowy crest and the mountain peaks
and rocky crests for his domain;
hither and thither he goes through the close thickets,
now lured by soft streams,
and now he presses on amongst towering crags
and climbs up to the highest peak
that overlooks the flocks.


Often he courses through the glistening high mountains,
and often on the shouldered hills
he speeds along slaying wild beasts,
this keen-eyed god.

Only at evening, as he returns from the chase,
he sounds his note, playing sweet
and low on his pipes of reed:
not even she could excel him in melody –
that bird who in flower-laden spring,
pouring forth her lament
utters honey-voiced song amid the leaves.


At that hour the clear-voiced nymphs are with him
and move with nimble feet,
singing by some spring of dark water,
while Echo wails about the mountain-top,
and the god on this side
or on that of the choirs, or
at times sidling into the midst, plies it nimbly with his feet.


On his back he wears a spotted lynx-pelt,
and he delights in high-pitched songs
in a soft meadow where crocuses
and sweet-smelling hyacinths bloom at random in the grass.


They sing of the blessed gods and high Olympus
and choose to tell of such an one as
luck-bringing Hermes above the rest,
how he is the swift messenger of all the gods,
and how he came to Arcadia,
the land of many springs and mother of flocks,
there where his sacred place is as god of Cyllene.


For there, though a god,
he used to tend curly-fleeced sheep
in the service of a mortal man,
because there fell on him
and waxed strong melting desire to wed
the rich-tressed daughter of Dryops,
and there he brought about the merry marriage.


And in the house she bare Hermes
a dear son who from his birth was marvellous to look upon,
with goat's feet and two horns --
a noisy, merry-laughing child.

But when the nurse saw his uncouth face and full beard,
she was afraid
and sprang up and fled and left the child.


Then luck-bringing Hermes received him
and took him in his arms:
very glad in his heart was the god.

And he went quickly to the abodes of the deathless gods,
carrying his son wrapped in warm skins of mountain hares,
and set him down beside Zeus
and showed him to the rest of the gods.

Then all the immortals were glad in heart
and Bacchic Dionysus in especial;
and they called the boy Pan
because he delighted all their hearts.

And so hail to you, lord!
I seek your favour with a song.

And now I will remember you
and another song also.


Pan Reinvented In Literature
Pan Reinvented In Literature

33 comments:

  1. Epainos megalos theos Pan!

    έπαινος μεγάλος θεός Πάν!

    Praise Great God Pan!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey there!

    My name is Alejo, I'm Argentinian but I live in Barcelona. I'm an astrologer and by mere chance, surfing the web on the death of the Great Pan I came into one of your posts dated on the 27th of December.

    I loved the article. I really liked it. So... I don't know, I just wanted to thank you for writing it ;-)

    Kind regards,
    Alejo
    Estamos vivos. Pulsamos...pulsoastral

    ReplyDelete
  3. Office worker ill in bed21 July 2009 at 13:14

    According to the World Health Orgnanisation we are now in a PANdemic with swine flu.

    Long Live 'Pan' indeed

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  4. Well written. Had a poetic feel to it that bought PAN back for a moment.

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  5. Why thank you all kindly. I only came back to this post to link it to my latest post about "Panic Attack! (Ataque de Panico!)" (an obvious link), and found all these nice comments.

    Maybe I should try more prose?

    Probably not LOL, maybe stick with a lucky winner!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pan is a God to be feared. A god of the greatest power and creativity. Pan can manipulate for good or evil, curse or bless you. When you see pan, you will try and flee. But there is no where to run, listen to pan play his lonely music. He bears the presence, and lives above all Gods. He is the Godhead. The magician. The trickster. Mythical creatures bow to him, for he is the oracle and prophecy of all. He is lost on the mountains, slaying beasts at his will and for game, guiding and protecting his sheep and flock. Pan is almighty. Pan is immortal. Pan is dead. But deadpan is alive. Deadpan is an adjective used to describe an abstraction in facial expression; a face or facial expression displaying no emotion, animation, or humor'. Pan is evil, and the strongest of the Gods. The Gods should bow to Pan. Mythology has changed over time. But the great God Pan remains eternal.

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  7. It appears I have another fan .... or I am being warned off.

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  8. I too enjoyed this very much.

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  9. I thank everyone who has posted and said nice things ...

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  10. This is a great article.I arrived here looking for a possible date, a year when the cry of "The great god Pan is dead " reached the ears of the Emporer Tiberius. So far no luck but your words are an inspiration in the true sense of the word.
    Kudos.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Faunflynn thanks for the kind praise ... According to the Greek historian Plutarch (in De defectu oraculorum, "The Obsolescence of Oracles"), Pan is the only Greek god (other than Asclepius) who is dead.

    During the reign of Tiberius (reigned A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island of Paxi.

    A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead." Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments.

    If you consider that Tiberius was Emperor for only twenty three years ... this suggest that the date must have been in that timeframe.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "It was on an overcast morning, east of the isle of Echinades during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, ten years before Plutarch was born. The season had already advanced and most of the shipping had ceased for the winter. Suddenly the crew of a merchant vessel heard a mysterious voice calling out through the haze from the distant beach. The invisible man repeated it three times: "When you reach Palodes proclaim the Great God Pan is dead" (Plutarch).

    Plutarch is believed to have been born (45 / 46 AD) and therefore that puts the date of the proclamation as 35 - 36 AD. Therefore just before Tiberius died.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The only problem is that the exact date of Plutarch's birth is subject to some speculation, so the best we can say is that it occurred probably around 46 AD ... it could be a couple of years either side of that year.

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  14. Really enjoyed this post fella.

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  15. Thelma (Milwaukee)26 December 2015 at 21:55

    Really great piece. Enjoyed the English prose.

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  16. Really enjoyed reading this posting. You should try a bit more of this style.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers. I cant please everyone at once ... so I please myself Ha Ha. Seriously I am not sure I could post very much if I adopted a fictional prose approach. However, that being said, I have a (very) short story in the pipeline, which will be inflicted on an unsuspecting public sometime.

      Delete
  17. Just saw historian Bettany Hughes on a program about the Greek god Dionysus aka "Bacchus". What was particularly interesting was that on the Greek Island of Skyros they have a 'goat festival' aka the apokriátika (pre-Lenten) carnival, centred on a goat dance, done by groups of masked revellers in the streets of Hóra. The leaders of each troupe are the so-called yéri, or 'ancient ones', menacing figures dressed in goat-pelt capes, and with premature goat kid face masks to honour 'Dionysus'. The festival is still on the exact same days as the old festival to Dionysus/Bacchus.

    It appears to have been going on for at least 2,500 years, with some evidence that's its possibly a further 1,000 years older. Just shows how the the kourbània sacrifice in Greece may not be the only example of one of the old gods holding on to a small part of their divinity.

    NB: Dionysus/Bacchus was born of a god father and human mother, had the ability to perform miracles such as turning water into wine and was considered a saviour of mankind ... his worship rivalled Christianity (along side the worship of Mithras), until Emperor Theodosius declared the old gods dead in 390AD. He also had a revival of his worship in 18th century England amongst the upper classes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dionysus, of course, was also associated as another name for Pan (as mentioned in your post). He truly was an old god. Great article by the way, really enjoyed it.

      Delete
    2. Yep, he's appeared under many names as each civilisation rises and falls. Thanks for the observation.

      Delete
  18. With Pandemonium followed by Panic, as the Pandemic stalks the Earth's surface. Where are the two new gods?

    As it was in the beginning. So it shall be at the end. Pan Lives!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't argue with that ... it appears that the first one is having a moment to remind us acolytes that he still waits in the shadows.

      Thanks for comment on this ever popular post.

      Delete
  19. I guess the current coronavirus PANdemic is proof he still walks amongst us!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. I don't think anyone will argue with that. Thanks for the comment.

      Delete
  20. There is a new book on The Great God Pan by Paul Robichaud ISBN 9781789144765 which has been well received by reviewers.

    However at just under $20 online, it's not terribly cheap, so I'll probably wait for the paperback version or for it to hit the thrift shops.

    Oh, I enjoyed this post by the way.

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  21. Epic post man. Longest read I done in a while but enjoyed it.

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  22. Just read this posting. Really liked it.

    ReplyDelete

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