Faun
The faun (
Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts (
By the Renaissance, fauns were depicted as two-footed creatures with the horns, legs, and tail of a goat and the head, torso, and arms of a human; they are often depicted with pointed ears. These late-form mythological creatures borrowed their look from the satyrs, who in turn borrowed their look from the god Pan of the Greek pantheon. They were symbols of peace and fertility, and their Greek chieftain, Silenus, was a minor deity of Greek mythology.[1]
Origins
Romans believed fauns stirred fear in men traveling in lonely, faraway or wild places. They were also capable of guiding men in need, as in the fable of
In art
The Barberini Faun (located in the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany) is a Hellenistic marble statue from about 200 BCE, found in the Mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian (the Castel Sant'Angelo) and installed at Palazzo Barberini by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII). Gian Lorenzo Bernini restored and refinished the statue.[4]
The House of the Faun in Pompei, dating from the 2nd century BCE, was so named because of the dancing faun statue that was the centerpiece of the large garden. The original now resides in the National Museum in Naples and a copy stands in its place.[5]
The
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Barberini Faun (Glyptothek, Munich) c. 200 BCE
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Statue of a faun; Vatican, Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
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Fauns in a wooded landscape. The second version of a composition by Bril from 1620 now in the City Art Gallery in Bradford. The figures have been attributed to Pietro Paolo Bonzi (c. 1575–1636)
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Ivory Faun by Baron Triqueti, c. 1860
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Faun and goat, Ludwig Knaus (c. 1868).
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Sleeping Diana Watched by Two Fauns, 1877–1885, by Arnold Böcklin.
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Faun by Wilhelm von Gloeden c. 1895
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Maenad and Fauns, 1902–1912, by Isobel Lilian Gloag.
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Young Faun, 1902, byFranz Stuck.
In fiction
- Capitoline Museum.[8]
- In H.G. Wells' (1895) The Time Machine, in the year 802,701 CE, while exploring the far future, the Time Traveller sees "a statue – a faun, or some such figure, minus the head."[9]
- Mr. Tumnus, in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1949), is a faun. Lewis said that the famous The Chronicles of Narnia story all came to him from a single picture he had in his head of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood. In the film series, fauns are distinct from satyrs, which are more goat-like in form.
- In Lolita, the protagonist is attracted to pubescent girls whom he dubs "nymphets"; "faunlets" are the male equivalent.
- In the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre, it is related how fauns befriend and take a mathematician to meet Pan.
- In Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), a faun guides the film's protagonist, Ofelia, to a series of tasks, which lead her to a wondrous netherworld.
- In Frank Zhang calls Hedge a faun.[citation needed]
- In The Goddess Within, a visionary fiction novel written by Iva Kenaz, the main heroine falls in love with a faun.
- In the Spyro video game series, Elora is a faun from Avalar, who helps Spyro the dragonnavigate the world around him.
- In Carnival Row, fauns or 'pucks' are one of the mythical creatures that are part of the series.
See also
Media related to Fauns at Wikimedia Commons
References
- ^ Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 541.
- ^ "Phaunos". Greek Mythology. Theoi.com. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
- ^ "faun (mythical character)". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- University of Texas. Archived from the originalon 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
- ^ Dancing faun statuette. Edgar L. Owen, Ltd. (gallery) (image). Retrieved 2022-10-22.
- ^ Mallarmé, S. (n.d.) [1876]. L'après-midi d'un faune. Translated by Fry, Roger. Retrieved 2022-10-22 – via angelfire.com.
- ^ composer Claude Debussy, Leopold Stokowski conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (16 May 2009). Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (orchestral audio recording illustrated with images of classical paintings) – via YouTube.
- ^ "Online discussion of The Marble Faun (1860) and its connection with the statue". English Department. San Louis Obispo, CA: California Polytechnical University. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
- Wells, H.G. (1961) [1895]. The Time Machine (reprint ed.). New York, NY: Dolphin Books. p. 246.