Paul Robichaud

A well-researched deep dive into the demi-diety Pan, his origins in Arcadia, his following among shepherds, and his listing in the pantheon of Greek gods. One of the currents throughout this book comes from Plutarch, reporting on a ship's journey the words spoken by the ship's pilot Thamus: "Great Pan is dead." This statement is taken up by the early Christians as an acknowledgement that the old gods have died when Jesus was born (or was resurrected, depending on the writer), and later in English Romanticism when the poets seek to re-invoke Pan in their "green and pleasant land."

In addition to Plutarch there is Ovid, linking Pan to the nymph Syrinx, and others who include Echo and Pitys as two more nymphs linked with Pan. Robichaud uses these ancient springboards to discuss facets of Pan's character: panic, elemental, all-encompassing, lecherous, beneficent, seldom seen, guardian to the natural world.

From the ancient writers, Robichaud researches Medieval Pan, up through Pan's Romantic Rebirth with the writers' and artists' seeking of a deeper connection to nature during this time. There is artwork through the ages, there are poems, there are invocations, and there are the stories "Peter Pan" and "Wind in the Willows" that bring in elements of Pan. Robichaud also goes into detail about the chapter in the latter work called "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" that was removed from most American editions of "Wind in the Willows."

And he doesn't stop with the Edwardians. Pan is brought into the 20th century with neo-Pagan ideas and writings, including new rituals and hymns. There is also music (Pink Floyd and the Waterboys), films and television series, and an undercurrent of Pan's many aspects as we move through into the 21st century. Like the "pan-demic" that he mentions at the very end of this informative work.… (mehr)