Book Review: "The Horned God" ed. by Michael Wheatley

Full Title = The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan edited by Michael Wheatley

“Though horror and revolting nausea rose up within me, and an odour of corruption choked my breath, I remained firm. I was then privileged or accursed, I dare not say which, to see that which was on the bed, lying there black like ink, transformed before my eyes.”

"The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen

I have to admit, I am a big fan of the story The Great God Pan and so, anything to do with the horned god, I will probably just pick up regardless of what it is - even if it still has The Great God Pan as one of its main stories in an anthology. Yes, I will read it again. But let us go through who exactly 'Pan' is and why everyone in folk horror is so fascinated by this horned god of old.

Originally a god from the Ancient Greek tradition, he is often associated with the natural world and rustic woodland elements. Known as the god of shepherds, flocks and the untamed wilderness, he is best known for not only his physical appearance but his ability to live in the wilderness. This brings us on to his physicality; with the legs and the horns of a goat his physicality normally set him apart from other gods due to how unusual he appeared. This physical appearance is where the word 'panic' comes from due to the fear his appearance would initially induce in others. His influence on folk horror therefore is spread far and wide as having a last impact on the symbols associated with the untamed aspects of the wilderness and its creatures.

Things like the pan flute are named after the god because of his connection with music (as in the story of Pan and Apollo) and he is often known as one of the sons of Hermes, the messenger god. The festival Panathenaea is the festival often attributed to the celebration of the god Pan and he is possibly best known as a mischievous character, playing tricks on outsiders and travellers. Stories like The Great God Pan, Pan from Northern Lights and even J.M Barrie's Peter Pan are all based within the story of the Greek god Pan.

In this book dedicated to different stories depicting the god Pan, we see several interpretations of his story. Of course, due to the sinister nature of Pan many of them are gothic, dark and mysterious. Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan plays central to understanding the forces of the rest of the stories within as it starts off by ushering in the mischievious god with Oscar Wilde's Double Villanelle. A brilliant method of starting a compilation in the style of a chorus of a Greek Tragedy, this plays into the background of Pan's mythology in a very clever way, setting the reader up for dark times ahead.

In a strange and sinister fashion, this book is made out of tales by some of the leading writers of the genre of gothic short stories including not just Arthur Machen and Oscar Wilde, but Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Algernon Blackwood, Margery Lawrence and Dorothy Quick as well. These stories are filled with dreams and desires, some with ghosts and transformations but all of them link to how Pan's identity can come across as haunting, foreboding and more than often, horrific. Obviously, when we look at the iconology of Pan, we can see how the modern day sees him as relative to the Devil as both are represented by the mountain goat and the horns are definitely a give away to make Pan look as much like the demon Baphomet as physically possible. But it is not all simply doom and gloom, some stories are more sinister and mischievous and some are more gothic, tense and atmospheric.

All in all, this is a brilliant anthology filled with some amazing stories that open an entire world on to the horned god that is Pan. It is one of those to read on a cold, stormy night when the lights are dim and the coffee is warm. Sinister as it is, it also teaches us a lot about the connecting beliefs of the 19th and 20th centuries.