In Greek mythology, various authors describe Pan as the son of Hermes and Penelope ( pə-NEL-ə-pee; Greek: Πηνελόπη, Pēnelópē).[1] This Penelope is apparently the same person as Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in the Odyssey.[2] It has been suggested, however, that the Penelope given as Pan's mother is a nymph, and a separate figure to Odysseus' wife.[3]
Alternatively, Pindar and Hecataeus state that she is Pan's mother by Apollo,[4] while according to the historian Duris of Samos, the birth of Pan is the result of her sleeping with all of her suitors.[5]
- ^ Herodotus, 2.145; Apollodorus, E.7.38; Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 2 (pp. 244–7). Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.22.56 (pp. 340, 341) and Hyginus, Fabulae 224 state that Pan is the son of Mercury and Penelope. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14.87–94 (pp. 478, 479) states that she is the mother of "Pan Nomios" by Hermes.
- ^ Hard, p. 215; March, s.v. Pan, p. 582; Apollodorus, E.7.38.
- ^ According to Hard, p. 215, that Pan's mother was Odysseus' wife "is so odd that it is tempting to suppose that this Penelope was not originally the wife of Odysseus, but an entirely different figure, perhaps an Arcadian nymph or the above-mentioned daughter of Dryops". Gantz, p. 839 n. 63 to p. 110 states that Brommer's Satyroi argues for the existence of such a figure, who was later forgotten and conflated with the wife of Odysseus. See Haldane, pp. 24–5 for a more extensive discussion.
- ^ Gantz, p. 110; Pindar, fr. 90 Bowra; FGrHist 1 F371 [= Scholia on Lucan's Pharsalia, 3.402.110.25].
- ^ BNJ 76 F21a [= Tzetzes on Lycophron, 772]; so too Scholia on Theocritus' Idylls 1.3/4c (Wendel, p. 27–8) [= BNJ 76 F21b].