PAN Greek god of the pasture-fields, herds and herdsmen, Pan was also identified with Dionysos, god of gaiety and merriment. Woods and plains, hunting and fishing were under his immediate care and patronage, and he was also associated with music, playing the reed pipes that became known as the pipes of Pan, the story being that the god had fallen in love with a beautiful nymph called Syrinx, but she was transformed into a reed. Pan then cut and shaped the reed, and fashioned from it pipes that gave forth such haunting and wonderful music that he was once moved to challenge Apollo to a musicians' contest, over which Midas presided, judging the god of fields to be the better player.