🎵 Hymn Greek Complete c. 6th–5th century BCE

Homeric Hymn 19: To Pan

A delightful 49-line hymn narrating Pan's birth — the goat-footed, two-horned son of Hermes and a daughter of Dryops — and his father's proud presentation of the laughing child to the gods of Olympus.

About the Poem

The nineteenth Homeric Hymn is a complete poem of 49 hexameter lines — the most substantial of the “shorter” hymns and among the most charming in the collection. Unlike most hymns, which are primarily invocatory, Hymn 19 narrates a complete birth myth: how Hermes fell in love with the daughter of Dryops in Arcadia, married her, and she bore him a son who was extraordinary to look upon — goat-footed, two-horned, laughing and noisy from birth.

The nurse fled in terror from the uncanny child. But Hermes, overjoyed, wrapped the baby in mountain-hare skins and carried him to Olympus, where he set the child before Zeus and showed him to all the gods. They were all delighted, and Dionysus most of all — and they named the boy Pan (Πάν) because he delighted all (πάντες) their hearts.

The hymn opens with a description of Pan’s domain: mountain peaks, rocky crests, thickets, streams, the music of his pipes heard at evening, and the dancing nymphs while Echo wails around the mountaintops.

Opening — Pan’s Domain (lines 1–26)

Greek (Homeric — opening)

Ἀμφί μοι Ἑρμείαο φίλον γόνον ἔννεπε Μοῦσα, αἰγιπόδην, δικέρωτα, φιλόκροτον, ὃς κατ’ ὄρεσφι πίσεα βησσήεντα μετὰ νύμφαις ἀγροτέρῃσιν στείχει…

(Full Greek text at Perseus Digital Library, link below.)

English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)

[1] 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.

The Birth Narrative (lines 27–49)

[27] 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 the 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.

[48] And so hail to you, lord! I seek your favour with a song. And now I will remember you and another song also.

The Name Pan

The etymology offered in the hymn — Pan (Πάν) from πάντες (pantes, “all”) because he delighted all the hearts of the gods — is an ancient folk etymology that was widely accepted in antiquity. The actual linguistic origin is more likely from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “herder” or related to the Greek pā- (to feed/graze), but the folk etymology was so compelling that it shaped Pan’s theological identity as the god of universal nature.

The detail that Dionysus was most delighted of all the gods reflects a deep mythological connection between Pan and Dionysiac religion: both are gods of ecstasy, wildness, music, and the animalistic aspects of human nature. Pan’s Arcadian pipe music was the low music of nature; Apollo’s lyre was the high music of civilization.

The Syrinx / Pipes of Pan

Pan’s syrinx (σῦριγξ, reed pipes, “Pan pipes”) was his most characteristic attribute. According to the myth told by Ovid (Metamorphoses 1.689–712), Pan pursued the nymph Syrinx, who escaped transformation into reeds at a riverbank; Pan cut the reeds and made them into his pipes. The sound of the syrinx — breathy, haunting, heard at dusk in wild places — was the auditory emblem of the god.

Citations

Homeric Hymns Pan Hermes Arcadia nymphs pipes Echo music goat-god
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