One of the strangest stories to survive from the ancient world of the Greeks tells of a mysterious voice heard across the sea announcing something almost unthinkable. According to the voice, the Greek god Pan was dead.
The story was recorded by the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch in his work On the Obsolescence of Oracles, written during the Roman period. Rather than recounting a familiar myth about a god battling monsters or interfering in human affairs, Plutarch presented the episode almost like a contemporary report. He included named witnesses, specific geographical locations, and even an investigation allegedly ordered by the Roman emperor.
The story raises an enduring mystery about what Plutarch believed had happened and why the death of Pan would have been considered such a remarkable event. It also offers a glimpse into how ancient Greeks understood their gods, oracles, and the changing religious world around them.
What happened to the Greek god Pan?
According to Plutarch, the incident took place during the reign of Emperor Tiberius in the first century AD. A ship was sailing toward Italy when it reached the waters near Paxi, a small group of islands in the Ionian Sea off western Greece. The captain of the vessel was an Egyptian man named Thamus. As evening approached and the wind dropped, those aboard suddenly heard a mysterious voice coming from the direction of the shore. The voice repeatedly called out the name Thamus.
After initially remaining silent, Thamus eventually answered. The unseen speaker then gave him an extraordinary command. When the ship reached a place called Palodes, Thamus was to announce that the Great Pan was dead. According to Plutarch the command was: “When you come opposite Palodes, announce that the great Pan is dead” (Original in Greek: “ὁπόταν γένῃ κατὰ τὸ Παλῶδες, ἀπάγγειλον ὅτι Πὰν ὁ μέγας τέθνηκε”).
The passengers were reportedly disturbed by what they had heard and debated whether the instruction should be followed or ignored. Thamus decided that if the winds remained strong, he would continue sailing without saying anything. However, when the ship reached Palodes, the sea had become completely calm. Standing at the stern of the vessel, he therefore called toward the land and announced that the great Pan had died.
According to Plutarch, the response was immediate. A great sound of lamentation rose from the shore, apparently made not by a single person but by many voices together, accompanied by cries of astonishment. Plutarch describes what followed with an equally eerie phrase: “There arose a great groaning, not from one but from many, mingled with astonishment” (“γενέσθαι μέγαν οὐχ ἑνὸς ἀλλὰ πολλῶν στεναγμὸν ἅμα θαυμασμῷ μεμιγμένον”).
The story eventually reached Rome, where it attracted the attention of Tiberius, the Roman Emperor himself. Plutarch claims that the emperor summoned Thamus and questioned him about what had happened. Scholars were then reportedly asked to determine which Pan the mysterious voice had referred to. The tale is particularly unusual because Greek gods were generally regarded as immortal.
Within Plutarch’s wider philosophical discussion, however, Pan may have been understood not simply as one of the eternal Olympian gods but as a daimon, the root word of “demon,” a supernatural being existing between gods and humans that could potentially die.
The myth in Christian times
Centuries later, Christians interpreted the episode entirely differently. The supposed death of Pan occurred during the reign of Tiberius, the same Roman emperor under whom Jesus Christ was crucified. Early Christian writers, including Eusebius of Caesarea, therefore understood the story as a sign that the power of the old pagan gods and spirits was fading with the arrival of Christianity.
Whether anything resembling the incident actually occurred remains impossible to establish and ultimately depends on personal faith. Yet the strange cry recorded by Plutarch survived for nearly two thousand years. Over time, “the Great Pan is dead” came to symbolize the passing of the pagan world and the beginning of a new religious age with the rise of Christianity.
Related: How Did the Ancient Greek Gods “Die”?
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
