Syrinx

               The term syrinx as used in modern times refers to the musical instrument that is more commonly known as the pan pipes or pan flute, but the story behind this instrument dates back thousands of years. Before the instrument was invented, Syrinx was the name of a chaste Arcadian naiad, or water nymph, who was the daughter of Ladon, the River God of Arcadia (Demerdash).

 

 Syrinx by William McMillan, 1925

               Her story begins when Pan, “the god of the pastoral and rural, of pastures and flocks, of shepherds and goatherds, and of wild mountainsides and valleys” (Silver) falls in love with her and, though she resists his advances, pursues her. To protect her vow of chastity, she runs from Mount Lycaeum to the bank of the River Ladon, where she prays to her sisters – the other water nymphs – to help her escape him, and they immediately transform her into a patch of water reeds. When Pan catches up and finds that she has disappeared and all that is left of her is the reeds, he lets out a sorrowful sigh; his breath travels through the reeds, creating a “plaintive melody” (Hakan) that he finds beautiful. Inspired, he cuts some of the reeds into various lengths, waxes them together, and creates an instrument which he calls syrinx, after his love. He became an expert in the playing of his instrument, “which he played in her honor, or to accompany the nymphs in their dancing” (Silver).

  

Modern Version of a Syrinx/Pan Pipes/Pan Flute

               As with any myth, there are different variations on the tale. One version of it ends not with her asking her sisters for help and being transformed, but with her being “consumed by the earth and from the place where she disappeared a patch of reeds grew” (Bane). Pan then finds the reeds and, in an enraged fit, tears them apart. His angry cries then flow through the reeds and create the music that entrances him, leading him to wax them together and create his new instrument.

               Perhaps the most altered and gruesome variation of this myth is the one that is “thought to have been invented during the Hellenistic period” (Larson). In this version, Pan not only desires Syrinx for her beauty, but also envies her musical skill. In his obsession with her, he “sent a madness upon the herdsmen, who tore her to pieces” (Larson). Once she had been killed, the “Earth received her broken limbs, which even after burial continued to make songs” (Larson). She does not transform into reeds, but instead turns into a pine tree and “sings her sad fate when the wind blows through her branches” (Larson).

       

 Pan and Syrinx by Jean-Francois de Troy, 1720s

This unfortunate tale has given way to not only the creation of pan’s musical instrument, but it has also helped to name aspects of the medical world. From tools to diseases, the story of Pan and Syrinx inspired words like syringe – “the word Syrinx, from Greek, means ‘shepherd’s pipe’; Syringa of syrinx, from Greek, mean ‘tube, hole, channel, shepherd’s pipe’ (Hakan) – and hypertrichosis, which is a disease that results in an abnormal amount of hair growth all over the body. The word originates from the Greek language (the Greek word Trix means hair in English), but the disease itself can be seen in Pan, who is halfway covered in hair and has horns, hooves, and a tail like that of a goat. Many ancient Grecian myths have left their marks on modern tools and terms, and the myth of Syrinx is no exception.