Pan

 

Hymn to Pan 14-26

That at evening he lifts his voice alone, as he come back from the hunt, gently playing sweet music on his reeds [i.e., the syrinx]. In melodies he could not be surpassed even by the bird who among the leaves of flowery spring pours forth her lament, her honey-voiced song. With him then go the clear-singing mountain nymphs, singing and dancing with swift feet by a dark-water spring. Echo sounds loud about the mountain top; and the god, gliding hither and thither among the dancers, and then into the middle, leads the dance with swift feet. On his back he has a spotted lynx-skin; and he rejoices in the clear-toned singing, in a soft meadow where crocus and sweet-scented hyacinth bloom, mingling with the grass in close embrace.

(Barker 1984: 46.)

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