Pan (#2 on marker)

Artist: George Pratt

About: The goat-god Pan is a mythological Greek god of the wild. He also has a reputation as a bacchanalian. One of his favourite past-times was pursuing beautiful wood nymphs that strayed into the high forests where he lived. His strange, goat-like features frightened the nymphs and they would flee from him. From this we got the term ‘panic’. He was particularly smitten by one nymph whose name was Syrinx, but she did not welcome his attentions. One day, being pursued by Pan, she came to the river. Exhausted, she beseeched the water nymphs to protect her. Before Pan arrived at the river she was transformed into a water reed growing along the river bank. Frustrated, Pan plucked the reeds hoping to find her – but he wasn’t successful. He went back into the forest and fashioned the reeds into the first flute. Since that day, he can be found playing music on the flute hoping that Syrinx will come to him. But he is still sitting there blowing and Syrinx has still not come. Syrinx is the official name for the instrument we know as the pan-flute.

Materials: Salt and Pepper Granite.