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62-451: As this is a location-based series of character sketches, there are a number of individual plots. The tales centre on the occupants of an English manor (based on Aston Hall , near Birmingham , England, which was occupied by members of the Bracebridge family and which Irving visited). As this is a series of character sketches, the most effective way currently to describe this book is to list

124-618: A Message. The cry "The Great Pan is dead" has appealed to poets, such as John Milton , in his ecstatic celebration of Christian peace, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity line 89, Elizabeth Barrett Browning , and Louisa May Alcott . Representations of Pan have influenced conventional popular depictions of the Devil . In the late-eighteenth century, interest in Pan revived among liberal scholars. Richard Payne Knight discussed Pan in his Discourse on

186-656: A building in Paradise Street, until the building of the current Art Gallery in the Council House complex. In the 1920s, the Birmingham Corporation was having financial troubles and had to choose between saving Aston Hall and the nearby Perry Hall . Aston Hall was saved, and in 1927, the Birmingham Civic Society designed formal gardens which were constructed by the city with a workforce recruited from

248-563: A great Pan, but also little Pans, Paniskoi, who played the same part as the Satyrs ". Herodotus wrote that according to Egyptian chronology, Pan was the most ancient of the gods; but according to the version in which Pan was the son of Hermes and Penelope, he was born only eight hundred years before Herodotus, and thus after the Trojan war. Herodotus concluded that that would be when the Greeks first learnt

310-524: A large park, part of which became Villa Park , the home ground of the Aston Villa football club . The park is listed Grade II in Historic England 's Register of Parks and Gardens . The house was severely damaged after an attack by Parliamentary troops in 1643. Some of the damage is still evident, and there is a hole in the staircase where a cannonball went through a window and an open door, and into

372-423: A nymph named Pitys , who was turned into a pine tree to escape him. In another version, Pan and the north wind god Boreas clashed over the lovely Pitys. Boreas uprooted all the trees to impress her, but Pan laughed and Pitys chose him. Boreas then chased her and threw her off a cliff resulting in her death. Gaia pitied Pitys and turned her into a pine tree. According to some traditions, Pan taught Daphnis ,

434-502: A nymph named Hybris for his parents, and was the mentor of Apollo. Pausanias records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. Other sources ( Duris of Samos ; the Vergilian commentator Servius ) report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. This myth reflects

496-424: A reed. When the air blew through the reeds, it produced a plaintive melody. The god, still infatuated, took some of the reeds, because he could not identify which reed she became, and cut seven pieces (or according to some versions, nine), joined them side by side in gradually decreasing lengths, and formed the musical instrument bearing the name of his beloved Syrinx. Henceforth, Pan was seldom seen without it. Echo

558-652: A reward the king of the gods placed him amongst the stars as the Constellation Capricorn. The mother of Aegipan, Aix (the goat), was perhaps associated with the constellation Capra. Sybarios was an Italian Pan who was worshipped in the Greek colony of Sybaris in Italy . The Sybarite Pan was conceived when a Sybarite shepherd boy named Krathis copulated with a pretty she-goat amongst his herds. In Pseudo-Plutarch 's De defectu oraculorum ("The Obsolescence of Oracles"), Pan

620-455: A rustic son of Hermes, how to play the pan-pipes, and also fell in love with him. Women who had had sexual relations with several men were referred to as "Pan girls." Disturbed in his secluded afternoon naps, Pan's angry shout inspired panic ( panikon deima ) in lonely places. Following the Titans' assault on Olympus , Pan claimed credit for the victory of the gods because he had frightened

682-584: A simile about the whole world being revealed as it really is: "seeing the Great God Pan". The novella is considered by many (including Stephen King ) as being one of the greatest horror-stories ever written. In an article in Hellebore magazine, Melissa Edmundson argues that women writers from the nineteenth century used the figure of Pan "to reclaim agency in texts that explored female empowerment and sexual liberation". In Eleanor Farjeon 's poem "Pan-Worship",

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744-502: A vaguely-defined deity also sometimes identified with Faunus. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Pan became a significant figure in the Romantic movement of western Europe and also in the twentieth-century Neopagan movement . Many modern scholars consider Pan to be derived from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European god *Péh₂usōn , whom they believe to have been an important pastoral deity ( *Péh₂usōn shares an origin with

806-514: Is a powerful but secretive nature-god, protector of animals, who casts a spell of forgetfulness on all those he helps. He makes a brief appearance to help Rat and Mole recover the Otter's lost son Portly. The goat-footed god entices villagers to listen to his pipes as if in a trance in Lord Dunsany 's novel The Blessing of Pan (1927). Although the god does not appear within the story, his energy invokes

868-436: Is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens, and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. In Roman religion and myth , Pan was frequently identified with Faunus , a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea , sometimes identified as Fauna ; he was also closely associated with Silvanus , due to their similar relationships with woodlands, and Inuus ,

930-464: Is both charming and selfish - emphasizing our cultural confusion about whether human instincts are natural and good, or uncivilised and bad. J. M. Barrie describes Peter as 'a betwixt and between', part animal and part human, and uses this device to explore many issues of human and animal psychology within the Peter Pan stories. Arthur Machen 's 1894 novella The Great God Pan uses the god's name in

992-450: Is hoped this will restart again in the future. Pan (god) In ancient Greek religion and mythology , Pan ( / p æ n / ; Ancient Greek : Πάν , romanized :  Pán ) is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus , and companion of the nymphs . He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr . With his homeland in rustic Arcadia , he

1054-454: Is identified with Phanes/Protogonos , Zeus , Dionysus and Eros . Numerous different parentages are given for Pan by different authors. According to the Homeric Hymn to Pan , he is the child of Hermes and an (unnamed) daughter of Dryops. Several authors state that Pan is the son of Hermes and " Penelope ", apparently Penelope , the wife of Odysseus : according to Herodotus , this

1116-541: Is open to the public during spring, summer and autumn months, following extensive renovation from 2006 to 2009. It boasts a series of period rooms which have furniture, paintings, textiles and metalwork from the collections of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery . Visible from the House less than 200 yards to the north is Aston Villa Football club stadium. The hall received 28,804 visitors in 2019. The easternmost part of

1178-625: Is revealed to be in a state of half-death. Pan inspired pieces of classical music by Claude Debussy . Syrinx , written as part of incidental music to the play Psyché by Gabriel Mourey , was originally called "Flûte de Pan". Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune was based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé . The story of Pan is the inspiration for the first movement in Benjamin Britten 's work for solo oboe, Six Metamorphoses after Ovid first performed in 1951. Inspired by characters from Ovid 's fifteen-volume work Metamorphoses , Britten titled

1240-525: Is still owned by Birmingham City Council . It is now a community museum managed by the Birmingham Museums Trust and, following a major renovation completed in 2009, is open to the public. Using a design by John Thorpe , construction was commenced in April 1618 by Sir Thomas Holte , who finally moved into the hall in 1631. The house was completed in April 1635, and is now Grade I listed . It sits in

1302-531: Is the only Greek god who actually dies. During the reign of Tiberius (AD 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the Greek 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. Christian apologists , including Eusebius of Caesarea , have long made much of Plutarch's story of

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1364-419: The "death" of Pan came the advent of theology. To this effect, Chesterton claimed, "It is said truly in a sense that Pan died because Christ was born. It is almost as true in another sense that men knew that Christ was born because Pan was already dead. A void was made by the vanishing world of the whole mythology of mankind, which would have asphyxiated like a vacuum if it had not been filled with theology." It

1426-653: The Cave of Pan. The only exceptions are the Temple of Pan on the Neda River gorge in the southwestern Peloponnese – the ruins of which survive to this day – and the Temple of Pan at Apollonopolis Magna in ancient Egypt . In the fourth century BC Pan was depicted on the coinage of Pantikapaion . Archaeologists, while excavating a Byzantine church of around 400 AD in Banyas , discovered in

1488-483: The Elizabethan poets. Douglas Bush notes, "The goat-god, the tutelary divinity of shepherds, had long been allegorized on various levels, from Christ to 'Universall Nature' (Sandys) ; here he becomes the symbol of the romantic imagination, of supra-mortal knowledge. ' " In the late-nineteenth century Pan became an increasingly common figure in literature and art. Patricia Merivale states that between 1890 and 1926 there

1550-453: The Worship of Priapus (1786) as a symbol of creation expressed through sexuality. "Pan is represented pouring water upon the organ of generation; that is, invigorating the active creative power by the prolific element." John Keats 's "Endymion" (1818) opens with a festival dedicated to Pan where a stanzaic hymn is sung in praise of him. Keats drew most of his account of Pan's activities from

1612-429: The aptness of the name: "for he may lawfully be said in the Greek tongue to be Pan, since he is our all. For all that we are, all that we live, all that we have, all that we hope, is him, by him, from him, and in him." In this interpretation, Rabelais was following Guillaume Postel in his De orbis terrae concordia . The nineteenth-century visionary Anne Catherine Emmerich , in a twist echoed nowhere else, claims that

1674-599: The attackers. In the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), it is said that Pan favored the Athenians and so inspired panic in the hearts of their enemies, the Persians. In two late Roman sources, Hyginus and Ovid , Pan is substituted for the satyr Marsyas in the theme of a musical competition ( agon ), and the punishment by flaying is omitted. Pan once had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo , and to challenge Apollo,

1736-505: The banister. The house remained in the Holte family until 1817, when it was sold and leased by James Watt Jr. , son of industrial pioneer James Watt . The house was purchased in 1858 by a private company (the Aston Hall and Park Company Ltd) for use as a public park and museum. After the company ran into financial difficulties, the house was bought by the Birmingham Corporation in 1864, becoming

1798-557: The contents. All are hardcover editions except the 1823 and 1991 (binding unknown). Aston Hall Aston Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean house in Aston , Birmingham , England, designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635. It is a leading example of the Jacobean prodigy house . In 1864, the house was bought by Birmingham Corporation , the first historic country house to pass into municipal ownership, and

1860-482: The death of Pan. Due to the word "all" in Greek also being "pan," a pun was made that "all demons" had perished. In Rabelais ' Fourth Book of Pantagruel (sixteenth century), the Giant Pantagruel , after recollecting the tale as told by Plutarch, opines that the announcement was actually about the death of Jesus Christ , which did take place at about the same time (towards the end of Tiberius ' reign), noting

1922-570: The detailed illustrated depictions of Pan included in the volume are by the artists Giorgio Ghisi , Sir James Thornhill , Bernard Picart , Agostino Veneziano , Vincenzo Cartari , and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo . In the Percy Jackson novels , author Rick Riordan uses "The Great God Pan is dead" quote as a plot point in the novel The Sea of Monsters , and in The Battle of the Labyrinth Pan

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1984-467: The first historic country house to pass into municipal ownership. Aston Hall was visited by Washington Irving , who wrote about it as Bracebridge Hall , taking the name from Abraham Bracebridge, husband of the last member of the Holte family to live there. Irving's The Sketch Book stories described the harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, that had largely been abandoned. An Aston Hall custom

2046-460: The folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν). According to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , Apollodorus has his parents as Hermes and Oeneis, while scholia on Theocritus have Aether and Oeneis. Like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than the Olympians , if it is true that he gave Artemis her hunting dogs and taught

2108-408: The god of the lyre , to a trial of skill. Tmolus , the mountain-god, was chosen to judge. Pan blew on his pipes and gave great satisfaction with his rustic melody to himself and to his faithful follower, Midas , who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. Midas dissented and questioned

2170-853: The grounds made way for the A38(M) motorway , also known as the Aston Expressway. This opened in 1972 and gave the city centre a direct link with the M6 motorway . In October 2019, the mansion was named as the UK's top haunted heritage site, according to the Spectrum Paranormal Investigations and National Lottery . In October 2023, Aston Hall became home to a parkrun , a free, weekly timed 5 km run which takes place every Saturday morning at 9am. The parkrun ceased running 10 months later in August 2024, however it

2232-632: The justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer and turned Midas' ears into those of a donkey . Pan could be multiplied into a swarm of Pans, and even be given individual names, as in Nonnus ' Dionysiaca , where the god Pan had twelve sons that helped Dionysus in his war against the Indians. Their names were Kelaineus, Argennon, Aigikoros, Eugeneios, Omester, Daphoenus, Phobos, Philamnos, Xanthos, Glaukos, Argos, and Phorbas. Two other Pans were Agreus and Nomios . Both were

2294-413: The love of any man but was enraptured by Narcissus . As Echo was cursed by Hera to only be able to repeat words that had been said by someone else, she could not speak for herself. She followed Narcissus to a pool, where he fell in love with his own reflection and changed into a narcissus flower. Echo wasted away, but her voice could still be heard in caves and other such similar places. Pan also loved

2356-495: The modern English word "pasture"). The Rigvedic psychopomp god Pushan (from PIE zero grade *Ph₂usōn ) is believed to be a cognate of Pan. The connection between Pan and Pushan, both of whom are associated with goats, was first identified in 1924 by the German scholar Hermann Collitz . The familiar form of the name Pan is contracted from earlier Πάων , derived from the root * peh₂- (guard, watch over). According to Edwin L. Brown,

2418-413: The monster Typhon, he dived into the river Nile ; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish. Pan is famous for his sexual prowess and is often depicted with a phallus . Diogenes of Sinope , speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learning masturbation from his father, Hermes , and teaching the habit to shepherds. There was a legend that Pan seduced

2480-510: The moon goddess Selene , deceiving her with a sheep's fleece. One of the famous myths of Pan involves the origin of his pan flute , fashioned from lengths of hollow reed. Syrinx was a lovely wood- nymph of Arcadia, daughter of Ladon , the river-god. As she was returning from the hunt one day, Pan met her. To escape from his importunities, the fair nymph ran away and didn't stop to hear his compliments. He pursued from Mount Lycaeum until she came to her sisters who immediately changed her into

2542-549: The movement, "Pan: who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved." The British rock band Pink Floyd named its first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in reference to Pan as he appears in The Wind in the Willows . Andrew King, Pink Floyd's manager, said Syd Barrett "thought Pan had given him an understanding into the way nature works. It formed into his holistic view of

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2604-563: The name Pan is probably a cognate with the Greek word ὀπάων "companion". In his earliest appearance in literature, Pindar 's Pythian Ode iii. 78, Pan is associated with a mother goddess , perhaps Rhea or Cybele ; Pindar refers to maidens worshipping Cybele and Pan near the poet's house in Boeotia . The worship of Pan began in Arcadia which was always the principal seat of his worship. Arcadia

2666-501: The name of Pan. The goat-god Aegipan was nurtured by Amalthea with the infant Zeus in Crete. In Zeus' battle with Typhon , Aegipan and Hermes stole back Zeus' "sinews" that Typhon had hidden away in the Corycian Cave . Pan aided his foster-brother in the battle with the Titans by letting out a horrible screech and scattering them in terror. According to some traditions, Aegipan

2728-530: The owners afforded the servants of the house on Christmas Eve appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1795, which said: "the servants have full liberty to drink, dance, sing, and go to bed when they please." For a few years from 1879, Birmingham's collections of art and the Museum of Arms were moved to Aston Hall after a fire damaged the municipal public library and Birmingham and Midland Institute , which shared

2790-489: The phrase "the Great Pan" was actually a demonic epithet for Jesus Christ , and that "Thamus, or Tramus" was a watchman in the port of Nicaea , who, at the time of the other spectacular events surrounding Christ's death, was then commissioned to spread this message, which was later garbled "in repetition." In modern times, G. K. Chesterton has repeated and amplified the significance of the "death" of Pan, suggesting that with

2852-486: The prime Pan, reflecting his dual nature as both a wise prophet and a lustful beast. Aegipan , literally "goat-Pan," was a Pan who was fully goatlike, rather than half-goat and half-man. When the Olympians fled from the monstrous giant Typhoeus and hid themselves in animal form, Aegipan assumed the form of a fish-tailed goat. Later he came to the aid of Zeus in his battle with Typhoeus, by stealing back Zeus' stolen sinews. As

2914-505: The restoration of the statue, the head of which was missing. The council appealed for old photographs to assist in its reconstruction. In 1938, the Pageant of Birmingham, with around 10,000 performers, was held in the grounds, to commemorate the centenary of Birmingham becoming a borough. Aston Hall is now a community museum managed by Birmingham Museums Trust , having previously been managed by Birmingham City Council until 2012. Aston Hall

2976-416: The sailors actually heard the excited shouts of the worshipers of Tammuz , Θαμούς πανμέγας τέθνηκε ( Thamoús panmégas téthnēke , "All-great Tammuz is dead!"), and misinterpreted them as a message directed to an Egyptian sailor named 'Thamus': "Great Pan is Dead!" Van Teslaar explains, "[i]n its true form the phrase would have probably carried no meaning to those on board who must have been unfamiliar with

3038-562: The secret of prophecy to Apollo . Pan might be multiplied as the Pans (Burkert 1985, III.3.2; Ruck and Staples, 1994, p. 132 ) or the Paniskoi . Kerenyi (p. 174) notes from scholia that Aeschylus in Rhesus distinguished between two Pans, one the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas , and one a son of Cronus . "In the retinue of Dionysos , or in depictions of wild landscapes, there appeared not only

3100-458: The sons of Hermes, Agreus' mother being the nymph Sose, a prophetess: he inherited his mother's gift of prophecy, and was also a skilled hunter. Nomios' mother was Penelope (not the same as the wife of Odysseus). He was an excellent shepherd, seducer of nymphs, and musician upon the shepherd's pipes. Most of the mythological stories about Pan are actually about Nomios, not the god Pan. Although, Agreus and Nomios could have been two different aspects of

3162-522: The speaker tries to summon Pan to life after feeling "a craving in me", wishing for a "spring-tide" that will replace the stagnant "autumn" of the soul. A dark version of Pan's seductiveness appears in Margery Lawrence 's Robin's Rath , both giving and taking life and vitality. Pan is the eponymous "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame 's The Wind in the Willows (1908). Grahame's Pan, unnamed but clearly recognisable,

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3224-579: The unemployed and paid for by government grants. The scheme included fountains, terracing and stone urns and a statue of Pan , by William Bloye , which the Civic Society paid for itself. In 1934 the finished work was presented to the City Parks Committee and unveiled by the Vice President of The Birmingham Civic Society, Gilbert Barling . As of January 2011, Birmingham City Council was working on

3286-411: The walls of the church an altar of the god Pan with a Greek inscription, dating back to the second or third century AD. The inscription reads, " Atheneon son of Sosipatros of Antioch is dedicating the altar to the god Pan Heliopolitanus. He built the altar using his own personal money in fulfillment of a vow he made. " In the mystery cults of the highly syncretic Hellenistic era, Pan

3348-498: The world." Brian Jones , a founding member of The Rolling Stones , strongly identified with Pan. He produced the live album Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka , about a Moroccan festival that evoked the ancient Roman rites of Pan. Musician Mike Scott of the Waterboys refers to Pan as an archetypal force within us all, and talks about his search for “The Pan Within",

3410-445: The worship of Tammuz which was a transplanted, and for those parts, therefore, an exotic custom." Certainly, when Pausanias toured Greece about a century after Plutarch, he found Pan's shrines, sacred caves and sacred mountains still very much frequented. However, a naturalistic explanation might not be needed. For example, William Hansen has shown that the story is quite similar to a class of widely known tales known as Fairies Send

3472-655: The younger folk of the village to revel in the summer twilight, while the vicar of the village is the only person worried about the revival of worship of the old pagan god. Pan features as a prominent character in Tom Robbins ' Jitterbug Perfume (1984). The British writer and editor Mark Beech of Egaeus Press published in 2015 the limited-edition anthology Soliloquy for Pan which includes essays and poems such as "The Rebirthing of Pan" by Adrian Eckersley, "Pan's Pipes" by Robert Louis Stevenson , "Pan with Us" by Robert Frost , and "The Death of Pan" by Lord Dunsany . Some of

3534-461: Was a district of mountain people , culturally separated from other Greeks. Arcadian hunters used to scourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase. Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usually caves or grottoes such as the one on the north slope of the Acropolis of Athens . These are often referred to as

3596-516: Was a nymph who was a great singer and dancer and scorned the love of any man. This angered Pan, a lecherous god, and he instructed his followers to kill her. Echo was torn to pieces and spread all over Earth. The goddess of the Earth, Gaia , received the pieces of Echo, whose voice remains repeating the last words of others. In some versions, Echo and Pan had two children: Iambe and Iynx . In other versions, Pan had fallen in love with Echo, but she scorned

3658-465: Was an "astonishing resurgence of interest in the Pan motif". He appears in poetry, in novels and children's books, and is referenced in the name of the character Peter Pan . In the Peter Pan stories, Peter represents a golden age of pre-civilisation in both the minds of very young children (before enculturation and education), and in the natural world outside the influence of humans. Peter Pan's character

3720-444: Was interpreted with concurrent meanings in all four modes of medieval exegesis : literally as historical fact, and allegorically as the death of the ancient order at the coming of the new. In more modern times, some have suggested a possible naturalistic explanation for the myth. For example, Robert Graves ( The Greek Myths ) reported a suggestion that had been made by Salomon Reinach and expanded by James S. Van Teslaar that

3782-545: Was the son of Pan, rather than his father. The constellation Capricornus is traditionally depicted as a sea-goat , a goat with a fish's tail (see "Goatlike" Aigaion called Briareos, one of the Hecatonchires ). A myth reported as "Egyptian" in Hyginus 's Poetic Astronomy (which would seem to be invented to justify a connection of Pan with Capricorn) says that when Aegipan —that is Pan in his goat-god aspect —was attacked by

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3844-419: Was the version which was believed by the Greeks, and later sources such as Cicero and Hyginus call Pan the son of Mercury and Penelope. In some early sources such as Pindar (c. 518 – c. 438 BC) and Hecataeus (c. 550 – c. 476 BC), he is called the child of Penelope by Apollo . Apollodorus records two distinct divinities named Pan; one who was the son of Hermes and Penelope, and the other who had Zeus and

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