Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/278

 the principal facts and authorities, and to give a succint account of the genuine Arcadian system of religion and manners without attempting to refute at length the opposite views, which have been adopted by ancient and modern writers.

The peculiar Divinity of Arcadia, whose worship had a constant and manifest reference to the principal employments of the inhabitants, was Pan. Hence he is called by Virgil and Propertius "the God of Arcadia ." According to Herodotus (ii. 145.), Pan, the son of Mercury (who was born at Cyllene in Arcadia, where Mercury was previously worshipped,) first saw the light after the Trojan war, and about 800 years before his own time. Thus we are able to refer the supposed birth of Pan, and consequently the commencement of his worship to about the year 1260 B. C..

The circumstances of the birth of this divinity, with his habits and employments, are described as follows in the most ancient document which we have relating to him, viz. Homer's Hymn to Pan. Mercury tended rough flocks at Cyllene in the service of a mortal man, being enamored of a beautiful nymph. In the course of time she bore him a son, having the feet of a goat, two horns upon his forehead, a long shaggy beard, and a bewitching smile. This was Pan, who became the god of the shepherds, and the companion of the mountain nymphs, penetrating through the densest thickets, and inhabiting the most wild, rough, and lofty summits of the sylvan Arcadia. There it is his business to destroy the wild beasts; and when, having returned from hunting, he drives his sheep into a cave, he plays upon his reeds a tune sweet as the song of any bird in spring. The nymphs, delighting in melody, listen to him when they go to the dark fountain, and the god sometimes appears among them, wearing on his back the hide of a lynx, which he has lately killed, and he joins with them in the choral song and dance upon a meadow variegated with the crocus and the hyacinth. He is beloved by Bacchus,