Essay

The ancient Greek god Pan is depicted with a tail emanating from his lumbar spinal area. Ancient Greek artists are quite accurate in their depiction of animal tails yet consistently show Pan as having an ectopic tail. We propose that the Pan tail is based on an ancient observation of an abnormality associated with diastematomyelia, which can explain both the seemingly anomalous tail and the physical and behavioral phenotype of the god. We believe that the origins of the myths about Pan are to be found in essentially medical observations the ancient Greeks made of actual people and not in metaphorical constructs they built on a foundation of pure imagination.

Pan, the ancient Greek god of flocks and fields, inhabited not Mount Olympus but pastures, woodlands, and wild mountain places. Known for his fondness for dancing and playing the pan pipes, he was also famous for being able to cause panic—a condition named after him. Although Pan was considered to be wanton and lecherous, he was often unhappy in love. His appearance is variously described, but common to all descriptions is the observation that he is part goat and part human. He is always depicted as having a goat’s horns and tail and, almost always, goat’s legs.

Pan appeared as a figure of worship in Arcadia, in ancient Greece, before 500 bc.1,2⇓ He was the most prominent member of a small group of gods and demigods, many of whom shared a distinctive set of features. This group (sometimes referred to as the “young” gods) included satyrs and silens2 (figure 1). Satyrs were considered to be more licentious than Pan but looked more or less like him. Later, the Romans included fauns, similar in appearance to satyrs, in their mythology. Silens were part horse and part human. …