Photo of the week: The manifestation of Pan

• 3 13 Jan 2021
• georgemyzalis

Photo of the week: The manifestation of Pan

Photos and article first published on this page

Those of you who have followed me on my tours will certainly have heard of the shrine of Pan to  the north of the temple of Olympian Zeus. For those who don’t know of it,i will briefly mention that around the Temple of Zeus,there used to be a number of smaller shrines and temples dedicated to lesser deities ,one of them being the shrine of Pan.

So,i had read about the shrine,i had studied the topography and the excavation report,I knew almost everything about this shrine.

…Everything?

Not quite.

An important detail was missing.I had never seen the carving of Pan and its representation of the god.I honestly thought it had disappeared forever due to erosion.

Then one day,while passing by the area completely by chance,it so happened that the sun was just at the right spot to reveal the great Pan in front of me.Right there,jumping out of that rock that I had looked upon countless times before without seeing anything.

Coy as ever,almost winking at me,it was like he decided after all this time to grace me,by revealing a secret he had kept from me for so many years.

Oh Great PAN! You really got me. I bow to your unmatched slyness.

Cant see it? Look closely.

Lets go a bit closer.

There he is!

The next time I happened to be giving a tour at the same spot,Pan was apparently playing a game with the shadows and  had become invisible again.