View source for Religion:Aegipan

{{short description|Ancient Greek mythological figure}}
[[File:Image-Schedel'sche Weltchronik-Devil man.jpg|thumb|Illustration from the ''Nuremberg Chronicle'' (1493)]]
'''Aegipan''' ({{lang-grc|Αἰγίπαν}}, Αἰγίπανος, "Goat-Pan") was a mythological being, either distinct from or identical to Pan. His story appears to be of late origin.

== Mythology ==
According to [[Biography:Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], Aegipan was the son of [[Religion:Zeus|Zeus]] (some sources say his son [[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]]) and [[Unsolved:Aega (mythology)|Aega]] (also named Boetis or Aix),<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#155 155].</ref> and was transferred to the stars.<ref>Hyginus, ''De'' ''Astronomica'' 2.13.28</ref>  Others again make Aegipan the father of Pan, and state that he as well as his son were represented as half goat and half fish, similar to a [[Unsolved:Satyr|satyr]].<ref>[[Biography:Eratosthenes|Eratosthenes]], ''[[Astronomy:Catasterismi|Catasterismi]]'' 27</ref> In Greek art, Aegipan is thus often depicted as a sea goat, the mythical creature represented by the constellation [[Astronomy:Capricornus|Capricornus]].  When Zeus in his contest with Typhon was deprived of the sinews of his hands and feet, [[Religion:Hermes|Hermes]] and Aegipan secretly restored them to him and fitted them in their proper places, after stealing them from the Corycian cave where they were being guarded by Delphyne.<ref>Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.6.3 1.6.3]; Hyginus, ''De'' ''Astronomica'' 2.13.28</ref>

According to a Roman tradition mentioned by [[Philosophy:Plutarch|Plutarch]], Aegipan sprang from the [[Social:Incest|incest]]uous intercourse of Valeria of Tusculum and her father Valerius, and was considered only a different name for [[Religion:Silvanus (mythology)|Silvanus]].<ref>[[Philosophy:Plutarch|Plutarch]], ''Parallela minora'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg085.perseus-eng1:22 22]; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=aegipan-bio-1 s.v. Aegipan].</ref>

== Literature ==
Later writers such as Pliny the Elder used the terms "Aegipanes", "Aegipans", or "Oegipans" to describe a race of satyr-like wild men said to reside in [[Place:Libya|Libya]].<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' V - 8</ref> This depiction was continued in medieval [[Biology:Bestiary|bestiaries]] where the terms aegipans and satyrs were sometimes used to describe ape-like or bestial creatures. These are thought to be fanciful descriptions of baboons or monkeys. A reference to oegipans as a species also appears in [[Biography:Edgar Allan Poe|Edgar Allan Poe]]'s ''The Fall of the House of Usher''.

==Notes==
[[File:Evolution and disease (1890) (14740994546).jpg|thumb|Depiction of an aegipan with a young pan (1890)]]{{reflist}}

==References==
*Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
*[[Biography:Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/207 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*Hyginus, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*[[Philosophy:Plutarch|Plutarch]], ''Moralia'' with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0219 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0217 Greek text available from the same website].
*Smith, William, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].

==External links==


[[Category:Greek gods]]


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