Pan2.0100_Barrie

Three movie posters for different adaptations of Peter Pan, illustrating how the myth is retold for differing emphases

Barrie’s creation seems more readily connected to Victorian sentiments re: Pan than it is based upon the classical mythological iconography. 19th-century poets especially dealt with the theme of Pan’s death, a motif begun by a curious tale in Plutarch, that during the reign of Tiberius people on board a ship cruising the western coast of Greece heard a great voice shout that “the great god Pan is dead.”

Pan is typically depicted as a satyr with head, torso, and arms of a man and a goat’s horns, ears, and legs. Pan is very much a part of the Dionysian thiasos (retinue). His aggressive sexuality is satyr-like. Peter Pan, on the other hand, is a boy with sylvan tendencies who refuses to grow up.

Still, aspects of Peter Pan seem hard to think could have come about without the myth.