Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
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Nevertheless, literary evidence beginning in the Augustan period presents Faunus as a hybrid of<br />
man and goat. 383 It is my position that we must not forget the evidence of the lupine character of<br />
the god, and that he actually had a dual nature, as a “wolf in goat's clothing,” so to speak.<br />
In the tale of Numa’s capture of Faunus and Picus, Ovid refers to Faunus as quatiens<br />
cornua, shaking his horns. 384 Elsewhere, Ovid describes him as semicaper deus, or half-goat<br />
god. 385 As mentioned earlier, I believe this is either a part of an iconographic shift that fully<br />
linked Faunus to one aspect of Arcadian Pan or the continuation of a dual conception of this god<br />
as both the protector and ravager of flocks. It is worth noting that even when depicted as a<br />
humorous character by Ovid, Faunus never fully loses the fearsome, chthonic aspect<br />
demonstrated in Chapter Three. If we remember that Faunus was associated with Inuus, a god<br />
who sexually assaults women in their sleep, then Horace’s depiction of Faunus as a Nympharum<br />
fugientum amator, a “lover of fleeing Nymphs,” takes on a new dimension. 386<br />
A second hint of the less-than-benevolent nature of Faunus can be found in Horace’s Ode<br />
1.17. In this example, the poet mentions sacrificial offerings to Faunus in his role as protector of<br />
the herd.<br />
Often swift Faunus exchanges Mt. Lycaeon<br />
For pleasurable Lucretilis<br />
And wards off the fiery heat and the constant wind<br />
And rains from my she-goats.<br />
They, straying safely through the grove,<br />
Seek arbutes and thyme, wives of a smelly<br />
Husband, and they do not fear greenish vipers,<br />
Nor the savage wolves of Mars. 387<br />
In this example, Horace mentions Mt. Lycaeon, a clear reference to the Arcadian cult of Lycaeon<br />
Pan, whom we have met earlier in the context of werewolf cults. This epithet reminds us of the<br />
dual nature of this god, which Horace perhaps reinforces in his remark regarding the wolves of<br />
tradition does not, however, make him a goat god anymore than Aesculapius or Zeus who were both nursed by<br />
goats.<br />
383<br />
Schilling 1992, 127.<br />
384<br />
Ov. Fas. 3.312.<br />
385<br />
Ov. Fas. 4.752.<br />
386<br />
Hor. Car. 3.18.1. For Inuus as a nighttime terror see Holleman 1974, 95. This pursuit of fleeing nymphs also<br />
brings to mind Pan and the shepherd as depicted on Fig. IV.1.<br />
387<br />
Hor. Car. 1.17.1-10. Latin Text taken from Horace Odes and Epodes, Vol. 3, edited by G.P. Goold, Loeb<br />
Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard <strong>University</strong> Press, 1999, p. 52. (Translation by Author.)<br />
Velox amoenum saepe Lucretilem / mutat Lycaeo Faunus et igneam / defendit aestatem capellis / usque meis<br />
pluviosque ventos. / inpune tutum per nemus arbutos / quaerunt latentis et thyma deviae / olentis uxores mariti / nec<br />
viridis metuunt colubras / nec Martialis haediliae lupos…<br />
79