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From bleh's answer in Can the Greek Gods Be "Killed"?, I learned that Pan is dead 1:

He returned no answer to the first calls; but at the third he replied, Here ! here! I am the man. Then the voice said aloud to him, When you are arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great God Pan is dead. Epitherses told us, this voice did much astonish all that heard it, and caused much arguing whether this voice was to be obeyed or slighted.

How did Pan die? Whose voice announces his death?


1 Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals (section 17). Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874.

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How did Pan die?

Well, there isn't a reason given anywhere so it's completely open to interpretation. Christian apologists/apologetics use it almost as a transition point:

It is said truly in a sense that Pan died because Christ was born. It is almost as true in another sense that men knew that Christ was born because Pan was already dead.

A more modern approach is that it was just Thamus mishearing what was said:

Thamus, apparently misheard Thamus Panmegas tethneke 'the all-great Tammuz is dead' for 'Thamus, Great Pan is dead!'

This one is strange, but it sort of makes sense as it would be as if Thamus was trying to make sense of it since he wouldn't be familiar with Tammuz. It also makes some more sense because after the Plutarch, there are still shrines to Pan and multiple other signs that Pan is not actually dead.

You can choose to interpret Pan's death however you want because there is no information given other than the fact that Pan is dead. I hope you found this helpful, but if you didn't then I hope you find what it is you are looking for.

Both of these quotes are taken from the 'The "death" of Pan' section at the Wikipedia page for Pan.

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Prior to the advent of monotheism, multiple gods couldn’t be considered a threat. The commandment given to Moses is that no god should be put before the Judeo Christian god, but with the birth of Christ as the Messiah, a pre-existing shepherd god located within the vicinity where Jesus was said to live caused questions of authenticity to be raised. Early Christian cultists needed to remove all (warranted) doubt from the minds of those they sought to indoctrinate, so Pan was eliminated.

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