DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69192#0232
C x6o ]
The chief character of the Sa’tyrs, or Pans,
is their lasciviousness ; from which the great god
Pan himself is not wholly exempt4. His figures
are usually naked, to express agility. Silius speaks
of his bounding from rock to rock, and gives the
fullest description of him of any Roman poet.
He crowns him with pine-branches, and shades
his forehead with them. He gives him a doe’s
Ikin over his lest shoulder, and a pedum in his
right hand; and reprefents him in several very
pidiuresque attitudese.
d The poets, by one epithet, express both the agility and
payfulness of the Satyrs, Lajcvvi satyri, Lasciwus lignifies
either playsul or lewd, as Wanton does in Fngliih. It is used
of Cupid, often to signify his nimbleness, and sometimes so too
os the Satyrs. Both Fauns and Satyrs were fond of the Nymphs, -
nay, even of the water ones. Hor. 1. iii. od. 18. v. i. Stat. i.
Sylv. 5. v. 18. The Satyrs were all called Pans, Celum. V.
427. Their lasciviousness is but too strongly expressed in the
famous Satyr (supposed to, be Pan himself) in the Lodovician
gardens, instrusting a youth to play on the lhepherd’s reed.
e See the whole description os Pan in Silius, 1. xiii. v. 347. •
This account of Pan is introduced where the poet is speaking of
the Roman army approaching Capua, to destroy it, after Hanni-
bal had left Italy. Jupiter (says the poet) moved with the dis-
tress of the Capuans, sends Pan to soften their incensed enemies,,
which he effe&ually did. Silius, on this occasion, calls Pan the
Mild God, or theinspirer of Mildness. Sil. xiii. v. 320. There
is a terminal sigure at Florence which they call Pan, whose
face agrees with this character. He has a goat on his shoulder,
and a little milking vesselin his righthand. This is the Pan,
perhaps, invoked by Virgil, Geo. i. v. 18.
Pan
IO
The chief character of the Sa’tyrs, or Pans,
is their lasciviousness ; from which the great god
Pan himself is not wholly exempt4. His figures
are usually naked, to express agility. Silius speaks
of his bounding from rock to rock, and gives the
fullest description of him of any Roman poet.
He crowns him with pine-branches, and shades
his forehead with them. He gives him a doe’s
Ikin over his lest shoulder, and a pedum in his
right hand; and reprefents him in several very
pidiuresque attitudese.
d The poets, by one epithet, express both the agility and
payfulness of the Satyrs, Lajcvvi satyri, Lasciwus lignifies
either playsul or lewd, as Wanton does in Fngliih. It is used
of Cupid, often to signify his nimbleness, and sometimes so too
os the Satyrs. Both Fauns and Satyrs were fond of the Nymphs, -
nay, even of the water ones. Hor. 1. iii. od. 18. v. i. Stat. i.
Sylv. 5. v. 18. The Satyrs were all called Pans, Celum. V.
427. Their lasciviousness is but too strongly expressed in the
famous Satyr (supposed to, be Pan himself) in the Lodovician
gardens, instrusting a youth to play on the lhepherd’s reed.
e See the whole description os Pan in Silius, 1. xiii. v. 347. •
This account of Pan is introduced where the poet is speaking of
the Roman army approaching Capua, to destroy it, after Hanni-
bal had left Italy. Jupiter (says the poet) moved with the dis-
tress of the Capuans, sends Pan to soften their incensed enemies,,
which he effe&ually did. Silius, on this occasion, calls Pan the
Mild God, or theinspirer of Mildness. Sil. xiii. v. 320. There
is a terminal sigure at Florence which they call Pan, whose
face agrees with this character. He has a goat on his shoulder,
and a little milking vesselin his righthand. This is the Pan,
perhaps, invoked by Virgil, Geo. i. v. 18.
Pan
IO