About 100–200 CE Yale University Art Gallery: Gift of Emily T.
and Cornelius C. Vermeule; 1998.32.1 This small bronze statuette
depicts the god Pan, with his goat legs, a tail, semi-bestial
head, and short goat horns. In his right hand, he holds a
shepherd’s crook (pedum), identifying his role as a pastoral
deity, while in his left hand, he holds a set of musical
panpipes. Pan enjoyed great popularity in ancient art from the
early fifth century BCE, when he was credited with helping
Athens win a victory over their Persian enemies at the Battle of
Marathon, onward. The earliest representations of Pan show him
as a full goat, but he quickly acquired some human features,
becoming the hybrid figure seen here. This statuette, of Roman
date but drawing on fourth or third century Greek models, may
have been a votive offering to the god. Not on view Additional
views (1) Cornelius Vermeule and Mary B. Comstock, Sculpture in
Stone and Bronze, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, 1988), 70, no. 72, ill. Susan