Art Institute of Chicago

Pan and Syrinx

Unknown Artist

Date

n.d.

Medium

Pen and black ink on tan laid paper, tipped onto tinted laid paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Known for his lustful appetite, Pan preyed upon hapless nymphs. When Pan pursued her to a river’s edge, the skilled huntress Syrinx appealed to Artemis, goddess of chastity, who transformed her into the surrounding river reeds to save her. Pan’s frustrated sigh sounded across the hollow reeds, which he then fashioned into the set of pipes that became his attribute. This 16th-century German drawing references details from book one of Ovid’s Metamorphoses such as the quiver Syrinx grasps as she escapes: “When [Pan] thought he now had Syrinx, found that instead of the nymph’s body he only held reeds from the marsh; and, while he sighed there, the wind in the reeds, moving, gave out a clear, plaintive sound. Charmed by this new art and its sweet tones the god said ‘This way of communing with you is still left to me.’”

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