From classical myth to modern literature, film and music, the god Pan has fascinated and terrified the Western imagination. 'Panic' is the name given to the peculiar feeling we experience in his presence.
Part-goat, part-man, Pan bridges the divide between the human and animal worlds. In exquisite prose, Paul Robichaud explores how he has been imagined through the centuries. At times, Pan is a dangerous, destabilizing force; at others, he is a source of fertility and renewal. Always the outsider, he has been the god of choice for gay writers and New Age mystics, and he has lived on through the work of Kenneth Grahame, D. H. Lawrence and countless others. Pan: The Great God's Modern Return traces his intoxicating dance.