Original artwork description:

At night Pan led the dance of the nymphs, and he also ushered in the morning and kept watch from the mountain summits. Many love stories were told of him, in which he pursued nymphs. These chases often had the same result as Apollon’s pursuit of Daphne: the nymph Pitys turned herself into a pine; Syrinx turned herself into a reed pipe, from which Pan fashioned the syrinx, a herdsman’s flute with a row of holes; Echo, chased by Pan, became a mere voice, mere refracted sound. But Pan’s greatest passion was for Selene. Of this affair, it was that the moon-goddess refused to company with the dark god. Whereupon Pan, to please her, dressed himself in white sheep-skins, and thus seduced Selene. He even carried her on his back. It is, of course, uncertain whether even in the earliest time it was necessary for him thus to change his shape to play the rôle of a successful lover with a goddess who repeatedly lets herself be embraced by darkness.

Materials used:

Oil, acrylic

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