Pan Birdbath, Date Unknown

The great god Pan, god before the gods of Olympus, the god of shepherds and wild nature, part man and part goat with hooves and horns, a musical god who plays reed pipes, a god of “unpredictable, animalistic energy.” (Wally Gobetz, Metropolitan Museum of Art) The closest image from antiquity to Allen’s Pan is an ancient roman marble statue from the 1st or 2nd century A.D. in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Wally Gobitz No doubt he had seen it in his study of antique sculptures and is referencing it here.

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