Small triangular face with a furrowed
protruding front, almond shaped large
and slightly bulging eyes,
imperceptibly placed towards the
edges of the face, short pointed nose,
small mouth, triangular beard and
very long moustaches, long hair, neat
and straight at the back of the head
with a few curls on the front with
short animal-like ears, which are
marginally extending to the front;
pair of stout horns on top of the
head.
The artifact is completely hollow at
the backside and given the size and
shape of the cavity could have
possibly belonged to an antefix.
In ancient Greek religion and
mythology Pan is an Arcadian
shepherd god with horns, the upper
body of a man and the lower part
goat-like, in the same manner of a
faun or a satyr; Pan is considered
guardian of the woods, groves and
fields, protector of shepherds and
flocks, companion of the nymphs.
His name originates within the
Ancient Greek language, from the
word paein (p?e??), meaning "to
pasture." In consequence to this
etymology, Pan is also connected to
notion of fertility and the season of
spring.
In ancient Roman religion and myth,
Pan was identified with Faunus, the
god of nature and also closely
associated with Sylvanus, god of
woodlands and fields.
An area of the Golan Heights (a rocky
plateau in South Western Syria) is
known as the Panion or Panium,
whereas the ancient city of Caesarea
Philippi, with the Banias natural
springs and grotto are related to Pan.
Carving quality makes it a unique
piece
The figure is unique in the mixture of
human and animalistic features: the
round head, thick neck, expressive
forehead are all very human
elements ,whereas the fleece, flat
muzzle, beard, thin lips, pointed ears
and horns reflect the animl side of
the god.
It was originally called “Panea” or the
City of Pan, and is now in Arabic
called Banias.
It was a center of worship of the
Greek god Pan, half man half goat.
Pan was a nature and fertility deity,
usually represented in a state of
sexual excitement and playing reed
pipes. The rituals associated with the
cult involved drunken orgiastic rites
on occasion using, well, ... goats.
The Temple of Pan was located at the
mouth of a large cave from which
then flowed a spring that was the
headwaters of the River Jordan. The
cave’s mouth is in a large face of
exposed bedrock, upon which the
Temple of Pan was built. The cave
opening looks like a spooky gate in a
city wall, leading to the underworld.
That’s probably exactly the reason
that people placed Pan’s Temple
there.
there.
Banias is the Arabic and modern
Hebrew name of an ancient site that
developed around a spring once
associated with the Greek god Pan, in
the vicinity of the town of Caesarea
Philippi. The site contains a spring
which is located at the foot of Mount
Hermon, north of the Golan Heights,
and constitutes one of the main
sources of the Jordan River.
Archaeologists uncovered a shrine
dedicated to Pan and related deities,
and the remains of an ancient city
founded sometime after the conquest
by Alexander the Great and inhabited
until 1967; the ancient city was
mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew
and Mark by the name of Caesarea
Philippi.
The first mention of the ancient city
during the Hellenistic period was in
the context of the Battle of Panium,
fought around 200-198 BCE, when
the name of the place was given as
"Panion". Later the region was called
"Paneas" (Greek: ?a?e???). Both
names were derived from that of Pan,
the god of the wild and companion of
the nymphs.
The spring at Banias initially
originated in a large cave carved out
of a sheer cliff face which was
gradually lined with a series of
shrines. The temenos (sacred
precinct) included in its final phase a
temple placed at the mouth of the
cave, courtyards for rituals, and
niches for statues. It was constructed
on an elevated, 80m long natural
terrace along the cliff which towered
over the north of the city. A four-line
inscription at the base of one of the
niches relates to Pan and Echo, the
mountain nymph, and was dated to
87 BCE.
The once very large spring gushed
from the limestone cave, but an
The pre-Hellenistic deity associated
with the spring of Banias was
variously called Ba'al-gad or Ba'al-
hermon.
Banias was certainly an ancient place
of great sanctity, and when
Hellenised religious influences began
to overlay the region, the cult of its
local numen gave place to the
worship of Pan, to whom the cave
was therefore dedicated.[4]
Paneas was first settled in the
Hellenistic period following Alexander
the Great's conquest of the east. The
Ptolemaic kings built a cult centre
there in the 3rd century BC.
In the Hellenistic Period the spring
was named Panias, for the Arcadian
goat-footed god Pan. Pan was revered
by the ancient Greeks as the god of
isolated rural areas, music, goat
herds, hunting, herding, of sexual
and spiritual possession, and of
victory in battle, since he was said to
instill panic among the enemy. The
Latin equivalent for Paneas is
Fanium.
The spring lies close to the fabled
'way of the sea' mentioned by Isaiah,
[6] along which many armies of
Antiquity marched.
Banias (Paneas), or Caesarea-
Philippi, was an impressive Greco-
Roman city located near a flowing
spring - one of the sources of the
Jordan river, on the foothills of the
Hermon mountain. A Roman
sanctuary, which included temples
and ritual courtyards, was built near
the sacred grotto of the Greco-Roman
God Pan. The ancient city, named
after Pan, was located to the south of
the springs.
Being a woodland creature like the
satyr, Pan is always portrayed with
the horns, ears, and shaggy legs of a
goat. Here he wears a fawn's skin
with two small hooves tied in a knot
around his neck. His long curls are in
disarray, his forehead is slightly
furrowed, and his eyebrows are raised
in an expression that verges on
pathos.
- (CB.08)
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