Satan as Pan

[Anonymous]

I was bored so I was just browsing around the internet. I came across a Witchcraft test and decided to take it just for something to do.

The first question was 'The devil, or Satan, is a Christianized version of Pan, or the Horned God.' My answer was false, basically because, though the image of Pan has been associated with, and incorporated into some depictions of Satan, I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that Satan is simply a Christianised version of Pan. As for the Horned God, I haven't seen much evidence of a deity called simply 'The Horned God' before Wicca.

Anyway, when I'd finished the short test, the response to my answer was:

The correct answer was True.

Many uninformed people assume that what they see on TV and in the movies is true. Wiccans have been treated poorly in the media, and one of the most common misconceptions is that Wiccans are evil, they worship the devil, and in some cases use human or animal sacrifice. This is not true. Wiccans revere the earth and all of nature, and would not harm another creature, human or otherwise.

The devil comes from a deliberate twisting of pagan ideals as Christianity spread its influence throughout Europe. By approximately 300 C.E., the demonization of Pan had begun, and it continued until the western world largely associated images of Pan with the devil. To the Greeks, Pan was a shepherd: he was half goat and half man, a thing of nature—certainly not the Antichrist or a being who was out to corrupt and steal men's souls.

I especially like the assumption that if I don't believe that Satan is a corrupted version of Pan and the Horned God, I must think the opposite is true.

[Gryphon]

The correct answer is none of the above.  
 
I do not know where the original version of the devil figure came from but it wasn't Pan, who was a minor deity at best in the Greek mythology. His popularity can be attributed to the Age of Romanticism which began as a result of the need to rehumanize society with the rise of the Industrial Age. All things having to do with the glorifying of nature, natural urges and the return to a more "simple" pastural existence became very prevalent at that time, Pan included.  
 
This is all explained so much better in the book Triumph of the Moon.  
 
The truth of the matter is that historical information changes frequently with the interpretations of the times. Just look at our understanding of things like the dinosaurs and the de-planetization of Pluto. The things we knew as fact as little as 50 years ago are now re-tuned as new facts. That's why if you break down the word history it becomes his story. Wait another 50 years, I'll bet things will be reinterpreted yet again to better suit 2056 society's understanding of the facts.  
 
The Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity are too far in the past for us to have any kind of accurate record of what did or did not take place. Things as recently as the 1600s are difficult to research and confirm. Wars, famine, disease, fires, floods and just plain dry rot remove old records and accounts and the descendants replace them with ones that follow their own life experiences.

[Anonymous]

I've read Triumph of the Moon and it makes a lot of good arguments.

I just find it worrying that Pagans can be the worst people for spreading misinformation.

[Fillionous]

There is a fair amount of evidance that as one religion replaces another certian 'features' of the 'old' religion get blended, corrupted and generally absorbed by the new. This is true of Christanities spread as much as any other faith.

Even a cursery look at the blendings that have occoured when Christanity met the Celtic cultures (look at the art work in things like the Book of Kells) or African or Asian faiths and practices.
Add to that the falibilities of human translations, political manoverings, conquest, govenment/religious leaders personal beliefs it is quite posible that at some point various horned dieties (Pan included) were lumped togeather and explained as primitive/devils/Satan and that these beliefs have continued on and off to the presant. But as Gryphon says the specifics have been lost in time and will never be clear, beyond that there is only a cursery conection rarther than a well documented polocy of portraing a minor Greek God as specifically Satan.

And as you say Leotaur64 Pagans (like every other kind of falible humans) are quite adept at adjusting thier own beliefs and polocies to express thier current thoughts... regardless of the compleat (or even partial) truth of the matter.

Be bright, be bold
Fillionous

[Zenon]

The devil comes from a deliberate twisting of pagan ideals as Christianity spread its influence throughout Europe. By approximately 300 C.E., the demonization of Pan had begun, and it continued until the western world largely associated images of Pan with the devil. To the Greeks, Pan was a shepherd: he was half goat and half man, a thing of nature—certainly not the Antichrist or a being who was out to corrupt and steal men's souls.

The actual medieval association comes from the image of Baphomet.  I challenge them prove to us that satan was indeed depicted as a goat like figure with horns in the year 300 A.D.

I still can't believe that even though it's been disproved a number of times, "wiccans" keep spreading false information about an "old religion" and "pagan gods turned into christian devils".  Modern paganism has very little similarity with ancient paganism.