and is the delight of his father Mercury, and he celebrates their worship beyond that of all the other gods.
Callimachus (Hymn. in Dianam, 88.) represents Pan at his fold in Arcadia, feeding his dogs with the flesh of a lynx, which he has caught on Mænalus. It is to be observed, that the care of dogs to guard the flock was an indispensable part of the pastoral office. Philostratus, in his Second Book of Pictures[1], supposes the nymphs to have been reproving Pan for his want of grace in dancing, telling him that he leapt too high and like a goat, and offering to teach him a more gentle method. He pays no attention to them, but tries to catch hold of them. Upon this they surprise him sleeping at noon after the toils of the chase; and he is represented in the picture with his arms tied behind him, and enraged and struggling against them, while they are cutting off his beard and trying to transform his legs and to humanize him.
In the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil we find frequent invocations to Pan as the god of shepherds, the guardian of flocks, and the inventor of the syrinx, or Pandean pipes.
Ipse, nemus linquens patrium, saltusque Lycæi,
Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Mænala curæ,
Adsis, O Tegeæe, favens.
Georg. i. 16-18.
God of the fleece, whom grateful shepherds love,
Oh, leave Lycæus and thy father's grove;
And if thy Mænalus yet claim thy care,
Hear, Tegeæan Pan, th' invoking prayer.
Georg. i. 16-18.
Delightful Mænalus, 'mid echoing groves,
And vocal pines, still hears the shepherds' loves;
The rural warblings hear of skilful Pan,
Who first to tune neglected reeds began.
Bucol. viii. 22-24.—Warton's Translation.
O that you lov'd the fields and shady grots,
To dwell with me in bowers and lowly cots,
To drive the kids to fold, the stags to pierce;
Then shouldst thou emulate Pan's skilful verse,
- ↑ Philostrati Senioris Imag. l. ii. c. 11.
