Tales of Pan

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Summary: The merry misadventures of the most mischevious of gods
Review: As Mordicai Gerstein explains, in Ancient Greece the god Pan was neither the greatest nor the grandest god, "But he was the one that delighted the harts of all the others." In this book for readers in Grades 2-5, Gerstein tells many of the stories of Pan from Greek mythology about "Pan and his family, and the grand and silly things they did." These are not reverent tales of the ancient gods, but rather a collection of fun stories told about the son of Hermes who was part animal, with a goat's horns and goat's hoofs instead of feet. Young readers will learn of the birth of Pan, how he made Arcadia his home, invented panic, fell in love with the Moon, meet Hercules, made his pipes, married Echo, engaged in the great music contest, and gave King Midas the ears of a jackass.

In other words, there are over a dozen different tales about the merry misadventures of Pan, told in the same spirit of fun and games in which the god of the woodlands reveled. Gerstein's pen and pencil illustrations continued the fun, although sometimes they actually overwhelm the page on which they appear. At the end Gerstein allows that while some believe the ancient gods have become the planets that bear their (Roman) names, others think Pan, Zeus and the others are just in disguise, looking like any other family. "Tales of Pan" ends with a warning, that if you wake up some morning feeling like leaping about and shouting wildly, you should look for Pan out of the corner of your eyes, because he just might be around and up to his old tricks.

Final Note: These stories were adapted from the Homeric Hyms as well as Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Robert Graves's excellent compilation of "The Greek Myths."