FAUNUS

ancient Italian rural deity whose attributes in classical Roman times were identified with those of the Greek god Pan. Faunus was originally worshiped throughout the countryside as a bestower of fruitfulness on fields and flocks. He eventually became primarily a woodland deity, the sounds of the forest being regarded as his voice. A grandson of Saturn, Faunus was typically represented as half man, half goat, a derivation from the Greek Satyr, in the company of similar creatures, known as Fauns. Like Pan, Faunus was associated with merriment, and his twice-yearly festivals were marked by revelry and abandon. At the Lupercalia (q.v.), a celebration of fertility held partly in his honour each February in Rome well into the Christian Era, youths clothed as goats ran through the streets wielding strips of goatskin.