Fauns and Satyrs and the Rites of Spring

Elihu Vedder “Young Marsyas,” 1878

Pan is the god most associated with the flocks and the fields and so often with the approach of spring. Pan, as well as fauns and stayrs, are often associated with a natural sexual freedom. Pan is siad to have learned masturbation from his farther, Hermes, and then taught it to the other sheperds. The half-man, half-beast characteristics of these mythological figures include a natural bisexuality as well as a coercive nature. Satyrs and fauns are often depicted in a sexual pursuit or a seduction that includes opposite sex partners, same sex partners, and animals.

Pan's Moon Dance

Art by Todd Yeager.

A Faun Teased by Children

A Faun Teased by Children is a marble sculpture by Italian artists Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his father Pietro Bernini. It was executed in 1616 and 1617, when Gian Lorenzo was not yet twenty years old.

A satyr door knocker

Anybody home? Anybody horny?

Nymphs and Satyr Pan, 1873, William Bouguereau

Bat Pan

Art by Todd Yeager.

Hans Thoma, Faun und Jüngling, 1887

A faun pursues a young intersex person for sex. Fresco uncovered at Herculaneum, buried under the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius

A Satyr Chasing Two Imps, by Gustaf Adolf Tenggren

Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley illustration by Robert Anning Bell, 1902

Satyrs are doing it for themselves

A satyr masturbating. Detail of side B of a Greek column krater showing two satyrs and a maenad in a Dionysiac scene in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain.

A Satyr, 1892, Daniel Huntington, American 1816-1906

Douris, Frolicking Satyrs, 480BCE. Red figure on psykter, ceramic. British Museum, London

Pan teaching Daphnis to play the flute.

Marble, Roman copy after an Hellenistic original. Pan's and Daphnis's heads and Daphnis's right arm are restorations. National Museum of Rome, Palazzo Altemps.

L'Après-midi d'un faune) was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for the Ballets Russes

The ballet ended with a scene of explicit sexuality and scandalized the Parisian audience. It also created the bisexual Nijinsky's legend as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time.

Satyr, by Andrea Appiani

Satyr and a Woman, by Austin Osman Spare

Austin Osman Spare (1886 – 1956) was an English artist and occultist. Influenced by symbolism and art nouveau, his art was known for its clear use of line, and its depiction of monstrous and sexual imagery.

Sleeping Satyr, or the Barberini Faun, circa 220 BCE

Leaving little doubt to the sexuality of fauns and satyrs.

Basin, found in a house in Pompeii

Marsyas Teaches Olympus by Petr Vasil'evich Basin, 1821

Olympus, a son of Meon, from Mysia. Plutarch attributes to him the composition of several hymns in honor of the gods.

The Capitoline Museum, Rome

Pan's Moon

Art by Todd Yeager.

Faun, 19th.century, Manuel Dominguez. (1841-1906)

Filippo Lauri (Rome, 1623 – 1694), Homage to Pan, 1680

James McAvoy and Mr Tumnis in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Fauns persist in contemporary times.

Satyr, Goat and Putti Group. 1785-1803. Volpato Manufactory. Biscuit porcelain. Sotheby’s auction, November 2012

Tim Curry as Darkness in the Tom Cruise film, Legend, 1985

Promotional material of Tim Curry as Darkness in the film, Legend, 1985

Photo self-portrait by Marwane Pallas

See more work by Marwane Pallas here.

Pan accosting a goat, discovered in Pompeii

Italian School, Pan with Pipes, 17th century.

Pan by P. Brad Parker

Detailed charcoal drawing of Pan, patterned after the Hellenistic Greek Marble statue in the Naples National Archaeological Museum, in Naples, Italy.

Peter Paul Rubens, Two Satyrs

Reinhardt und Seine Bühne, Bilder von der Arbeit des Deutschen Theaters by Ernest Julian Stern, 1919

Seated Satyr, attic red-figuri skyphos, 5th century, BC

Stephan Kern, Faunus im Wald, 1900

The Last Faun.

Charles A. Keller. Century Magazine, c.1910-20. “He stands by a tree looking down at the world. He looks as if he knows he is the last of his kind.”