Socrates on Pan
Phaedrus 279b8–c3 — the closing prayer: “O beloved Pan…” (with “all ye other gods of this place”).
“SOCRATES: Is it not well to pray to the deities here before we go?
PHAEDRUS: Of course.
SOCRATES: O beloved Pan and all ye other gods of this place, grant to me that I be made beautiful in my soul within, and that all external possessions be in harmony with my inner man. May I consider the wise man rich; and may I have such wealth as only the self-restrained man can bear or endure. — Do we need anything more, Phaedrus? For me that prayer is enough.
PHAEDRUS: Let me also share in this prayer; for friends have all things in common.
SOCRATES: Let us go.”
Phaedrus 263d–e — Socrates credits “the nymphs, daughters of Achelous, and Pan, son of Hermes” as inspiring his speech, in contrast to Lysias’ rhetoric:
“SOCRATES: Capital. But will you tell me whether I defined love at the beginning of my speech? for, having been in an ecstasy, I cannot well remember.
PHAEDRUS: Yes, indeed; that you did, and no mistake.
SOCRATES: Then I perceive that the Nymphs of Achelous and Pan the son of Hermes, who inspired me, were far better rhetoricians than Lysias the son of Cephalus.”
Plato’s Cratylus 408b–d — Socrates discusses Pan as the “double‑natured” son of Hermes:
“Socrates: But it is reasonable for Pan to be Hermes’ double-natured son.
Hermogenes: How so?
Socrates: You know speech signifies all things (to pan) and keeps them circulating and always going about, and that it has two forms—true and false?
Hermogenes: Certainly.
Socrates: Well, the true part is smooth and divine and dwells among the gods above, while the false part dwells below among the human masses, and is rough and goatish (tragikon); for it is here, in the tragic (tragikon) life, that one finds the vast majority of myths and falsehoods.
Hermogenes: Certainly.
Socrates: Therefore the one who expresses all things (pan) and keeps them always in circulation (aei polōn) is correctly called ‘Pan-the-goat-herd’ (Pan aipolos). The double-natured son of Hermes, he is smooth in his upper parts, and rough and goatish in the ones below. He is either speech itself or the brother of speech, since he is the son of Hermes. And it’s not a bit surprising that a brother resembles his brother. But, as I said, let’s leave the gods.”
Images: These early engravings are from Vincenzo Cartari's Le imagini de i dei de gli antichi... or Images of the Gods. The work was published in Venice in 1571 by Vincentio Valgrisi. The engravings were completed by Bolognino Zaltieri. This is the first illustrated edition of Cartari's work.
The work was considered the "first encyclopedia of classical iconography... widely used by Renaissance and Baroque artists." (Arntzen & Rainwater H35) It was a treatise on the mythology of the ancients, explaining the gods' guises and attributes. The iconography was intended to aid artists, painters, and sculptors in understanding the subject matters. Zaltieri's illustrations pictured gods solely working from a textual description instead of drawing inspiration from antique representations. The work was very successful in its time and became the iconographic handbook for painters for centuries. (Cicognara 4684)
