Pan in popular culture
Encyclopedia
Pan is often portrayed in literature, stage, and cinema, as a symbolic or cultural reference.
Film
- In The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Pan appears as one of the attractions in the circus. He seduces Angela Benedict, the librarian, with his enticing music and even takes the form of the man she secretly admires, Ed Cunningham, the newspaper editor. Pan is one of the seven characters in the film played by Tony Randall.
Literature
- Percy Jackson & The OlympiansPercy Jackson & the OlympiansPercy Jackson & the Olympians is a pentalogy of adventure and fantasy fiction books authored by Rick Riordan. The series consists of five books, as well as spin-off titles such as The Demigod Files and Demigods and Monsters. Set in the United States, the books are predominantly based on Greek...
by Rick RiordanRick RiordanRichard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr. is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series...
. He is a character sought out by all the satyrs for their quests. One of the main characters, Grover Underwood, was a Satyr who searched for Pan until he found him dying in the Labyrinth of King Minos. - Pan's LabyrinthPan's LabyrinthPan's Labyrinth is a 2006 Spanish Spanish-language dark fantasy film, written and directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. It was produced and distributed by the Mexican film company Esperanto Films...
by Guillermo del ToroGuillermo del ToroGuillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
(Spanish title: El Laberinto del Fauno, 2006). Although the faun featured in the film is not Pan, the design was based on Pan. - Sa majesté MinorSa majesté MinorSa majesté Minor is the 11th feature film by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is his third film shot entirely in his native language of French since his 1976 Oscar-winning début Black and White in Color and 1978 Coup de tête featuring Patrick Dewaere...
by Jean-Jacques AnnaudJean-Jacques AnnaudJean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, film producer and screenwriter.- Biography :Annaud was born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne...
(A French film from 2007, where Pan is a main character) - The Great God PanThe Great God Pan"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen. A version of the story was published in the magazine The Whirlwind in 1890, and Machen revised and extended it for its book publication in 1894...
by Arthur MachenArthur MachenArthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
. - Jitterbug PerfumeJitterbug PerfumeJitterbug Perfume is Tom Robbins' fourth novel, published in 1984. The major themes of the book include the striving for immortality, the meaning behind the sense of smell, individual expression, self-reliance, sex, love, and religion. Beets and the god Pan figure prominently...
by Tom RobbinsTom RobbinsThomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins (born July 22, 1936 is an American author. His best-selling novels are serio-comic, often wildly poetic stories with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent, an irreverent bent, and scenes extrapolated from...
, Pan plays a prominent role throughout the whole plot. - "News For The Delphic Oracle", poem by William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, in the collection "Last Poems" (1939). - "Pan With Us" by Robert FrostRobert FrostRobert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, Poem 26 from A Boy's Will. - "The Lawnmower ManThe Lawnmower Man"The Lawnmower Man" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the May 1975 issue of Cavalier, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.-Plot summary:...
" by Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. - "The Call of Wings" by Agatha ChristieAgatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
- In the short story "The Magic BarrelThe Magic BarrelThe Magic Barrel is a collection of thirteen short stories written by Bernard Malamud and published in 1958. It won the 1959 National Book Award for fiction.The stories included are :*"The First Seven Years"*"The Mourners"*"The Girl of My Dreams"...
" by Bernard MalamudBernard MalamudBernard Malamud was an author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford...
, main character Pinye Salzman is compared to Pan. - "A Musical Instrument" and "The Dead Pan", poems by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
. - Gravity's RainbowGravity's RainbowGravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
by Thomas Pynchon - Pan appears in The Circus of Dr. LaoThe Circus of Dr. LaoThe Circus of Dr. Lao is a 1935 novel written by Arizona newspaperman Charles G. Finney, and illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff. Many later editions omit these illustrations.- Plot summary :...
and its movie adaptation, "7 Faces of Dr. Lao7 Faces of Dr. Lao7 Faces of Dr. Lao is a Metrocolor 1964 film adaptation of the 1935 fantasy novel The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. It details the visit of a magical circus to a small town in the southwest United States, and the effects that visit has on the people of the town...
". - Pan is the primary, metaphorical theme in Knut HamsunKnut HamsunKnut Hamsun was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul....
's PanPan (novel)Pan is a 1894 novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. Written while he lived in Paris, France, and in Kristiansand, Norway, Hamsun was directly influenced by the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky... - Appears in GreenmantleGreenmantleGreenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London...
(1988) by Charles de LintCharles de LintCharles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
and in Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm (1991) - George PérezGeorge PérezGeorge Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
's first Wonder WomanWonder WomanWonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
story shows a duplicitous Pan tricking Princess Diana. - Pan is described, metaphorically, as "the/ goat-footed/ baloonMan" in E.E. Cummings's poem, "in Just-",
- "Pan", a double-villanelle by Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
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Music
- "Pan and Syrinx" by the Danish composer Carl NielsenCarl NielsenCarl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
. - BoujeloudBoujeloud (album)Boujeloud is a CD by the Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka.-Album details:It was released in September 2006 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne under the direction of Mohamed Hamri. The group on this CD includes veteran Joujouka musician Mujehid Mujdoubi...
by Master Musicians of Joujouka. - The Pan Within and The Return of Pan, two songs by The WaterboysThe WaterboysThe Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
. - Animal CollectiveAnimal CollectiveAnimal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
has a song entitled "I See You Pan" on their release HollinndagainHollinndagainHollinndagain is a live album by Baltimore based band Animal Collective , released in 2002 on St. Ives. Only 300 copies were initially made; each and every copy featured a unique cover, hand-made by the band themselves...
.. - In the original programme for Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Third SymphonySymphony No. 3 (Mahler)The Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1893 and 1896. It is his longest piece and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around ninety to one hundred minutes.- Structure :...
the first movement had the subtitle 'Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In'. - "Dryades et Pan" is the last of three Myths for violin and piano, Op. 30, by Karol SzymanowskiKarol SzymanowskiKarol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
. - "On Becoming Water", "Praise Pan, Great God Pan", and "Transformation Mantra" by Kid Primitive Family.
- In "Joueur de flute" by Albert RousselAlbert RousselAlbert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...
, one of the four movements is after Pan - "La Flute de Pan" (Pan et les Bergers, Pan et l'oiseaux, Pan et les Nymphes) by Jules MouquetJules MouquetJules Mouquet was a French composer.- Biography :Jules Mouquet studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Théodore Dubois and Xavier Leroux. In 1896, he won the prestigious Rome Prize with his cantata Mélusine. He went on to win another two composition prizes, the Prix Trémont and the Prix Chartier...
- "Pan", a song by The VeilsThe VeilsThe Veils are a London based Indie/Alternative rock band fronted by lead singer and songwriter Finn Andrews. They are known for their chaotic and highly cathartic live performances and Finn's often scarily possessed stage presence. Head of Rough Trade Records Geoff Travis has referred to Finn as "A...
- Pan is referenced in Stevie WonderStevie WonderStevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
's song "Flower Power" from his album The Secret Life of Plants. - We Are All Pan's PeopleWe Are All Pan's PeopleWe Are All Pan's People is an album by Julian House, under the pseudonym of The Focus Group. It was released on 26 March 2007 on the Ghost Box Music label...
, an album by The Focus GroupThe Focus GroupThe Focus Group is a project of experimental electronic musician and graphic designer Julian House. His releases are on his own label, Ghost Box Music...
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Video games
- Pan is a high-level antagonist in the computer game Freedom ForceFreedom Force (computer game)Freedom Force is a real-time tactical role-playing game developed by Irrational Games and published by Electronic Arts and Crave Entertainment in 2002. The player guides a team of superheroes as they defend Patriot City from a variety of villains, monsters, and other menaces. A sequel, Freedom...
. He plays a Pan flute that hypnotizes player characters into attacking their allies.
- Pan appears in King's Quest IV: The Perils of RosellaKing's Quest IV: The Perils of RosellaKing's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, released in 1988, was the first major graphical computer adventure game with a female protagonist. The player takes on the role of Princess Rosella, daughter of King Graham of Daventry and the twin sister of Gwydion/Alexander...
as a satyr playing a magical flute with hypnotic abilities.
- Pan appears as a Greek god in Dungeons and Dragons.
- Pan has a supporting role in the game Rise of the ArgonautsRise of the ArgonautsRise of the Argonauts is a 2008 third-person action adventure video game developed by Liquid Entertainment and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
on PC, PlayStation 3PlayStation 3The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. - Pan appears in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow as advisor to main character Gabriel Belmont.