4,994
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 4:
Line 4: + +
Pan and Syrinx. The syrinx organ in birds.
==In literature==
==In literature==
In Greek mythology, Pan, the goatlike god of Nature, is in love with the nymph Syrinx, who does not love him. He chases her, but river nymphs help her escape by changing Syrinx into river reeds. Pan makes his pipes out of the reeds. Pan pipes are also known as the ''Syrinx,'' which is also the name given to the sound-producing organ in birds.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, ''A Musical Instrument,'' uses the mythical pipes of Pan as a metaphor, suggesting that great art is produced only with great personal cost to the artist. In the poem, Browning says, Pan creats his musical instrument only by damaging the riverside, killing lilies and driving away the dragonflies as he tears out a reed. He then "hack'd and hew'd" at the reed, "drew the pith, like the heart of a man" and "notch'd the poor dry empty thing in holes." The experiment is successful; the last two stanzas read
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, ''A Musical Instrument,'' uses the mythical pipes of Pan as a metaphor, suggesting that great art is produced only with great personal cost to the artist. In the poem, Browning says, Pan creats his musical instrument only by damaging the riverside, killing lilies and driving away the dragonflies as he tears out a reed. He then "hack'd and hew'd" at the reed, "drew the pith, like the heart of a man" and "notch'd the poor dry empty thing in holes." The experiment is successful; the last two stanzas read