Villa del Casale Mythology: Pan

The myth tells that Pan, nymph Penelope and Mercury's son, born with feet of goat, two horns on his forehead and beard of beak, was so ugly that, at the birth, his mother was nearly swooning. The father took him to the Olympus, but he was continously tormenting the nymphs for lechery. Pan, fallen in love with Siringa, Arcadia nymph, was chasing her to submit to his wishes and when he was about to reach her, Siringa's father, Ladone, turned her into a cane thicket that, oscillating for the wind, was causing a sound exchanged by Pan as Siringa's moan. Pan, in memory of the beloved, cut seven canes (as seven notes) and, arranging them in growing order, built the instrument called siringa.