A probably French carved stone group of Pan and Syrinx 19th century

The story of Pan and Syrinx was related by the god Mercury in Ovid's Metamorphoses (I, 689-712) and has often been a cherished subject of artists. The satyr Pan, god of the woods and shepherds and well known for his pursuit of love and lust, is usually associated with the typical pipe he plays. He seemed to have a strong preference for the beautiful nymphs surrounding him in his arcadian world. After having failed in conquering the harts of the nymphs Echo and Pytis, he fell completely in love with Syrinx, a hamadryad nymph living in the woods on the mount Nonacris. Pan chased Syrinx, who had proclaimed herself a virgin for the rest of her life and often had managed to escape from her admirers, as far as the Ladon river. The exhausted and helpless Syrinx sat down at the banks of this river and begged her sisters to help her. Pan thought he had finally caught her, but the nymphs quickly transformed Syrinx into a bundle of reeds, growing in the marshes on the bank of the Ladon. The wind, blowing through these reeds, made a whistling sound, whereupon a disappointed Pan gathered some of these singing reeds, cut them into different lengths and named this instrument he created syrinx, in honour of this third nymph he did not manage to capture.