«IL GRANDE PAN (NON) È MORTO». LA LEGGENDA DELLA MORTE DI PAN DA PLUTARCO A D’ANNUNZIO

In Plutarch’s De defectu oraculorum a mysterious voice announces to a ship’s helmsman that «the Great Pan is dead». This enigmatic legend gave rise to two different interpretations crossing the history of European literatures. The first, concerning ritualism and folklore, connects this episode to the death of vegetations’s God (Tammuz, Adonis) or of another demonic entity. According to the second, common in Christian authors, Pan is the same crucifix Jesus or, on the contrary, the paganism defeated by his death. Gabriele D’Annunzio overturns announcement’s meaning and proclaims that «the Great Pan is not dead».