There is a particular custom observed in several places around modern Greece where men get up as Satyrs or Bell-Bearers(1) (picture), many times ram-formed, to pour into and roam the streets around displaying a lustful behaviour and strong sexual suggestiveness during the Carnival (late winter).

It is actually mainly practised over the last Sunday or weekend of the Carnival, albeit there could be exceptions, and particularly over insular places such as Chios, Naxos, Ikaria, Lesbos and Skyros whilst it is also found in the region of Chalchidiki on the mainland.

Although there is awareness that the tradition is very old with roots in deep antiquity, in some instances erroneously viewed as medieval nonetheless, I would say that it is evident that its meaning and what it illustrates has been lost in time and is practised more out of a ‘blurry memory’ of the long past.

What these dressed up men actually imitate is none else than the Pans or Paniskoi(2) who were copies (replicas) that Pan, ram-form god from Anatolia and most likely coming from the Phrygians, would multiply into that would roam around displaying exactly this lustful behaviour seeking to engage the erotic attention of the nymphs.

Pan was a god of the wild, the pasture, shepherds and flocks, woods and wooden glens as well as rustic music, a companion of the nymphs at that, as he was associated with the earth and nature along with all activities connected with them` just as was his name that didn’t originally mean ‘all’ (mainly used as a prefix) but has wound up so through time.

For that matter, he was considered older than the Olympians (although ‘Olympians’ here apparently regards the Olympus, a name that comes therefrom, of Phrygia) while he might as well have entertained even deeper roots in ancient Egypt, where he was known as Mendes whilst identified/associated with their own very ancient gods (Per-)Banebdjedet και Min.

Looking closer, I would argue that the name Mendes doesn’t seem Egyptian but instead strikes me most likely as Phrygian breaking down as ‘ΜΗΝ’ (voiced as ‘men’) ‘ΔΕ(Υ)Σ’ (rendered as ‘de(u)s,’ meaning ‘god’), the Phrygian lunar god that presided over the (lunar) months and whose name shapes the deep origin of the Greek word ‘μήνας’ (month).

Which, in turn, implies a connection between Men (MHN) and Pan, who was connected by means of a love affair with goddess of the moon Selene(3). It is particularly intriguing, come to that, the great similarity in the names of Phrygian god Men and Egyptian Min(4), whose nature and overall outlook resembles that of Pan a great deal.

The Phrygian identity of Pan before he crossed the Aegean and came over to the southern Balkans can be further established since he was associated with Phrygian supreme goddess Cybele, attested by Pindar as such for instance, as well as among the retinue of Phrygian god Sabazios who was venerated as main deity in many places around nowadays Greece including Athens (as Zeus).

There shouldn’t be ruled out, however, that the god could have born deeper origins with the Caucones(5), a very ancient Caucasian peoples of Anatolia, whom the Phrygians conquered at some point when they started shaping up as a major force in the region.

Especially seeing that the emergence of Pan in the wider area of nowadays Greece was regarded to have been in the region of Arcadia, which was mainly occupied by them (Caucones) and Pelasgians (descendants of Egyptian, Lybian, and maybe even Phoenician, settlers).

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(1) Dubbed as ‘koudounatoi,’ ‘koudounades’ or ‘koudounoforoi’ in Greek.

(2) The outlook of the ‘Bell-Bearers’ definitely fits that of Pan.

(3) Selene was also called MHNH, rendered as ‘Me`ne,’ which shapes the feminine form of the name of Phrygian lunar god Men (MHN) and therefore looks most definitely Phrygian, very likely her original name for that matter.

Furthermore, she bore the epithet ‘Pan-dia’ (voiced as ‘Pan Dia’) or ‘Pan-deia’ (rendered as ‘Pan-dea’) where ‘dia/deia’ simply spells ‘goddess’ and the first component ‘Pan’ seems to connect her with the god, on the one hand, as well as nature that he represented, on the other.

Which, by implication, come to further associate the two gods between them, who might have been the same.

(4) His name was likely pronounced as ‘Menu’ or ‘Men’ for that matter.

(5) Caucones were responsible for carrying over and spreading the cult of Hermes in what is nowadays Greece come to that.