Pan
| Religion in NetHack |
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In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Pan is the neutral god of the Bard pantheon.
Description
Pan is a neutral god of holy holiness, and his minions consist of dryads, deminymphs, Monadic Devas, and Gae Eladrin.
Origin
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. Pan's homeland is located in rustic Arcadia, a region in the central Peloponnese of southern Greece, and he is also connected to fertility and the season of spring. Many modern scholars consider Pan to be derived from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European god that they believe to have been an important pastoral deity, and some have drawn a connection between him and the earlier Rigvedic deity known as Pushan.
Numerous different authors give varying parentages for Pan, e.g. the Homeric Hymns describe him as the child of Hermes and an (unnamed) daughter of Dryops; sources such as Apollodorus and Aeschylus note two distinct divinities named Pan: in Apollodorus's tellings, one was the son of Hermes and Penelope, and the other had Zeus and a nymph named Hybris for his parents, serving as the mentor of Apollo and teaching him the prophetic arts. As with other nature spirits in classical folklore, Pan is implied to be older than the Olympians per his mentorship of Apollo and his gift of hunting dogs to Artemis, Apollo's sister and fellow goddess. Various sources that attest to multiple Pans, such as Agreus and Nomios from the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, may be the result of reflecting different aspects of the deity.
In one instance, Apollo was challenged to a contest of musical skill by Pan (presumably the same deity who served as his mentor): while Pan proved skilled on the pipes and played a satisfying rustic melody, Apollo used his lyre to produce music so beautiful that he was judged victorious at once; Pan and everyone present was pleased with the judgment, save for Pan's faithful follower Midas (said to be the same Midas from Ovid's Metamorphoses). When Midas dissented and questioned the justice of the award, Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused Midas's ears to become the ears of a donkey.
