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