Pan

Pan was the god of the wild, shepherds, flocks, and rustic music. He had the legs, horns, and beard of a goat, and his appearance was so startling that when his mother first saw him, she fled in terror. Yet Pan was generally good-natured, spending his days playing his reed pipes in the forests and meadows of Arcadia.

Pan's most famous invention was the syrinx — the pan pipes. He fell in love with the nymph Syrinx, who fled from him and was transformed into reeds by river nymphs. When Pan sighed in sorrow, his breath passing through the reeds created a haunting, beautiful sound. He bound the reeds together to create the first pan pipes.

Pan could inspire sudden, irrational fear in travelers who encountered him in lonely places. This unreasoning terror was called "panikon" — panic. He used this power in warfare too: during the Persian invasion, the Athenians claimed Pan caused a panic among the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.