Many of you probably know Pan as Hercules' trainer, from the movie "Hercules". Here is a story about the famous Pan (not to be mistaken with Peter Pan). The great god of nature was an ugly god. He had goat's legs, pointed ears, a pair of small horns, and he was covered all over with dark shaggy hair.g He was so ugly that his mother, a nymph, ran away screaming when she first saw him. His father, Hermes, was delighted with the strange looks of his son. He carried Pan up to Olympus to amuse the other gods and they all laughed at him and took him into their hearts. They called him "Pan" and sent him back to the dark woods and Stoy Hills of Greece as the great god of nature. He was to be the protector of hunters, shepherds, and curly fleeced sheep.

    Pan was a lonely and a moody God. When he was sad, he went off by himself and hid in a damp cave. If someone happened to come upon him and disturb him in his retreat, he would let out an unearthly scream so bone chilling that who ever heard it took to his heels and fled in the fear that they called panic.

    But when Pan was in a good mood, and that was usually on a moonlit night, he danced through glades and forests, and mountain slopes playing on his shepherds pipe, and nymphs and satyrs followed dancing behind him. Sweet and unearthly were the tunes that floated over the hills.

      The satyrs looked a lot like their master, Pan, but they were mischievous and good for nothing except for chasing nymphs. Old satyrs were fat and too lazy to walk. They rode donkeys, but they often fell off because they liked to drink wine. The light-footed nymphs always looked young, though some of them were very old in years. Their life span was so long that they were almost immortal and lived ten thousand times longer than men. There were water nymphs and nymphs of mountains and glens. There were many nymphs who lived in trees and nymphs who lived in springs.

    When a tree grew old and rotted, the nymph who lived in it moved it to another tree of the same kind. A wood chopper, about to fell a healthy tree, must ask permission of the nymph that lived there. If he didn't, she might send out a sworm of bees to sting him, or she might turn the ax around in his hands so he would cut his own leg instead of a tree trunk.

    A thirsty hunter must never drink from a spring with out asking the water nymph's permission. If he ignored the nymph, she might send a venomous water snake to bite him, or she might poison the water and make him sick.
 
    River gods, too, had to be asked before anyone took water from their rivers.  They were usually helpful and friendly to men and willingly shared their water, but sorrow to the one who tried to carry off their water nymph daughters. They would rush out of their river beds and charge him in full river god rage. They were dangerous opponents for they grew ox horns on their heads and they could change their shape at will. Zeus himself feared their rage, and panacaters crept well out of their way, though Pan liked all nymphs and fell in love with many of them.

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