In later times a cave near Marathon was dedicated to Pan, the stalactitio incrustations within it being compared to goats, and to their stalls and drinking-troughs[1].
Chandler and Dodwell in their Travels describe another cave larger than that at Marathon and containing more varied stalagmitic concretions. It is near the summit of Mount Rapsāna between Athens and Sunium. [Greek: PANOS] is inscribed on the rock near the entrance, proving that it was considered sacred to Pan. It is no doubt the Panīon mentioned by Strabo[2].
The Corycian cave on Mount Parnassus was dedicated by the surrounding inhabitants to Pan and to the Nymphs[3]. Theocritus also (Idyll. viii. v. 103.) speaks of Homole, a mountainous tract in the south of Thessaly, as belonging to Pan. Altars were dedicated to Pan on the race-course at Olympia in Elis[4], as we may presume, out of respect to the Arcadians, who resorted to the Olympic games. Pindar states[5], that he had near his door a statue of Pan. Here, as his able commentators Heyne and Böckh observe, his daughters with other Theban virgins sung hymns in honor of the god.
- [Footnote: same cave, and from its style, (the Æginetic,) may be supposed to have been
carved soon after the battle of Marathon. See Dr. E. D. Clarke s Greek Marbles, p. 9. No. xi. Wilkins's Magna Græcia, p. 71, and Dodwell's Tour, vol. i. p. 304.]
- ↑ Paus. l. i. 32. 6. Dodwell's Tour, vol. ii. p. 162. Mapat, p. 330 of Mem. on Eur. and As. Turkey, edited by Walpole.
- ↑ L. ix. cap. 1. § 21. It was consecrated to the Nymphs as well as to Pan, this association of the Nymphs with that deity being universally practised. Dodwell's Tour, vol. i. p. 550-555. "The countryman and shepherd, as well as the sportsman, has often repaired, it is likely, to this cave, to render the deities propitious by sacrificing a she-goat or lamb, by gifts of cakes or fruit, and by libations of milk, oil, and honey; simply believing, that this attention was pleasing to them, that they were present though unseen, and partook without diminishing the offering; their appetites as well as passions, caprices, and employments resembling the human. At noon-day the pipe was silent on the mountains, lest it might happen to awake Pan, then reposing after the exercise of hunting, tired and peevish." Chandler's Travels in Greece, c. 32. p. 155.
- ↑ Paus. l. x. 32. 5. Strabo, l. ix. cap. 3. § 1. p. 488. ed. Siebenkees Raikes's Journal in Memoirs edited by Walpole, p. 311-315.
- ↑ Paus. l. v. c. 15. § 4.
- ↑ Pyth. iii. 137-139.
