This god, so adored and loved in the country, had the power of spreading
terror and confusion when he pleased. The Gauls, who under Brennus, invaded
Greece, when on the point of pillaging the Temple at Delphi, were seized
with a sudden panic and took to flight. This terror was attributed to Pan,
and they believed all panics, the cause of which was unknown, were produced
by him.
It was by the counsel of Pan, that the Gods at the moment of the assault of
Typhon, took the figures of various animals, changing himself into a goat,
the skin of which was transported to Heaven, and formed the sign of
Capricorn.
"From the forests and highlands,
We come, we come!
From the river-girt islands,
Where the loud waves are dumb,
Listening to my sweet pipings.
The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
The bees in the bells of the lime,
The birds in the myrtle bushes,
The cicale above in the thyme,
And the lizard below in the grass,
Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was,
Listening to my sweet pipings.
Liquid Peneus was flowing,
And all dark Tempe lay
In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
The light of the dying day,
Speeded by my sweet pipings.
The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns,
And the nymphs of woods, and waves,
To the edge of the moist river lawns,
And the brink of the dewy caves,
And all that did there attendant follow,
Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo,
With envy of my sweet pipings.
"I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal earth,
And of heaven, and giant wars,
And love, and death, and birth,--
And then I changed my pipings.
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Singing how down the vale of Menalus,
I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed;
Gods and men were all deluded thus,
It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed:
All wept, as I think both ye now would,
If envy or age had not frozen your blood,
At the sorrow of my sweet pipings."
* * * * *