souls to the other world, would
then follow naturally; from this function it cannot, however, be
inferred that he was originally a chthonic deity--a character that does
not accord with the early portraitures of him. Like other gods he grew
morally, but he never reached ethical distinction. Skill in theft was in
early times often regarded as a virtue,[1327] and in general he who got
the better of his fellows was esteemed a master of good luck and
prosperity; and a bestower of outward prosperity Hermes came to
be.[1328] His main quality was cleverness, in contrast with the
intellectual power of Apollo.

+773+. On the other hand, another rustic figure, the Arcadian herd-god
Pan,[1329] never developed into a great Hellenic god. His worship was
widely diffused; he appears often in artistic representations, and
Pindar thought him worthy of a hymn (of which, unfortunately, only
fragments survive), but in general he remained uncouth and half savage,
a goatlike figure, the companion of satyrs, or (as the Homeric hymn
depicts him) a merrymaker. He seems to have been an embodiment of the
lower rustic pleasures, a local god, probably not a divinized
goat.[1330]

+774+. His name, however, taken to mean 'all,' gave occasion to fanciful
interpretations. He was so called, it was said, because he gave delight
to all the Immortals;[1331] or his person and his musical and other
instruments were supposed to represent universal nature--his horns the
rays of the sun and the horns of the moon, his spotted fawnskin the
stars, his pipe of seven reeds the harmony of the heavens, his crook the
year, which returns on itself, and so on.[1332] The Stoics and the
Orphic writers made him Universal God, the creator of the world.[1333]
In the popular cult, however, he remained the merry patron of herds. The
most satisfactory explanation of his name is that which derives it from
the stem _pa_, 'feed'--he is then "the goatherd."[1334] The story told
by Plutarch, of a voice heard crying on the coast of Epirus, "Great Pan
is dead," arose from some misapprehension, but no precise explanation
of its origin has been given.[1335] Poets like Pindar and Vergil,
disposed to preserve and dignify the old traditions, treat Pan
respectfully and sympathetically, but such constructions are
nonpopular.[1336]

+775+. Ares seems to be the creation of a war-loving tribe; in the Iliad
he is a fierce warrior, armed cap-a-pie, delighting in battle and
slaughter. Through t