Pan has always been seen as a god of fertility and was famed for his sexual prowess.  In ancient Greece, he was often depicted as having a large erect phallus.  Pan’s conquests were legendary, and he bragged about having seduced all of the

Maenads, the wild female followers of Dionysus, in frenzied orgies.  The word ‘orgy’ is derived from an Greek word, orgion, which means ‘secret rite’ and the ancient Greek religious orgies were celebrated with drunkenness, dancing and singing, but were not necessarily sexual.

In order to seduce Selene, the Moon Goddess, Pan disguised himself with a white sheepskin to hide his hairy goat form and gave her a herd of white oxen.

Pan did not just lust after maidens and nymphs.  He also fell in love with the shepherd Daphnis, who was the inventor of pastoral poetry, and taught him to play the pan pipes.

The Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope once told how Hermes took pity on Pan, who was pining for Echo, and taught him masturbation.  Pan then passed on this habit to his shepherd followers.  Diogenes commented that he wished it were so easy to relieve hunger by rubbing an empty stomach.

Leo Vinci, in his book ‘Pan: Great God of Nature’ writes: