Panpipes
The panpipes (also called the pan flute) is a musical instrument that, in Greek mythology, was invented by the god Pan. Pan was the god of shepherds. He was represented as half-man, half-goat, somewhat like a satyr or faun.
Like a satyr, he was always horny (no pun intended, though he did have horns). Diogenes related a myth that Pan was the one who taught lonely shepherds how to masturbate, though I suspect they could have figured it out by themselves.
Of course, shepherds also had access to sheep and goats. The Roman sculpture above, showing Pan getting it on with a goat, was found in a villa in Herculaneum, which was buried by the same eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD. Although it looks like pure porn to us, it was a decoration in a wealthy oceanfront villa that once belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law.
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In addition to goats, Pan was attracted to both men and women. In the engraving above by Marco da Ravenna, c. 1516, Pan is spying on a nymph named Syrinx. You can see how horny he is. According to myth, Syrinx wanted nothing to do with him, but he kept chasing her until she turned herself into a bunch of reeds growing by the water.
Then, according to the myth, Pan made the reeds into a musical instrument, the panpipes, in memory of her. Syrinx is now another name for panpipes.
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You can see the instrument in The Pipes of Pan by Pablo Picasso, 1923, painted during his neoclassical period. The instrument consists of hollow tubes of different lengths, closed on the bottom end. The player blows across the top end.
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This sculpture found in Pompeii is a Roman copy of a Greek original, showing Pan teaching the shepherd Daphnis how to play the panpipes.
Daphnis was the eromenos of Pan. In ancient Greek society, male-to-male sex was not only allowed, it was expected between an eromenos (a youth, who was the passive partner) and his erastes (an adult male, his teacher and mentor, who was the active partner). In this bas-relief of Pan and Daphnis, the panpipes are lying on the ground, the music lesson forgotten because Pan has something else in mind.
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This painting, Musical Duel Between Pan and Apollo by Laurits Tuxen, c. 1900, illustrates another myth in which Pan played his panpipes and Apollo played his lyre, to see who could play the best music. Apollo won. I got this image from the blog Vellohomo. Thanks, Franco!
More recently, we have this guy is dressed as Pan.
We end back in Pompeii with a guy playing panpipes among the ruins. I think the ghosts of Pompeii would approve.
4 comments:
and don't forget "Zamphir, Master of the Pan Flute!"
I love your lessons!
You forgot that his father Hermes taught him masturbation first, and he then taught lonely shepherds, but otherwise, pretty much all the details are there.
Also, here might be an important difference between Greek and Roman pederasty. Greek pederasty had a bit of respect: Minimum age, the eromenos could leave at any time, no penetration as that was seen as feminizing. In time, the eromenos is himself an erastes, though they may continue their relationship.
Roman pederasty was nothing like this, as the boy was a slave. The only rule was that if he penetrated his owner, it was shameful, going back to that question of effeminacy.
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