--- title: Pan, panic and Ulysses: the old myths and old words inside «The Wind in the Willows» — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Pan, panic and Ulysses: the old myths and old words inside «The Wind in the Willows»», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The book never names him, but he is Pan, a god from the myths of ancient Greece. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Pan, panic and Ulysses: the old myths… # Pan, panic and Ulysses: the old myths and old words inside «The Wind in the Willows» Lesson 43 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/1/) — The book never names him, but he is Pan, a god from the myths of ancient Greece. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/2/) — The old Greeks said Pan lived in wild places and that the sudden wild fear people felt alone in the hills came from him; that is where our word «panic» comes from. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/5/) — Many everyday English words were born in these old stories: panic, odyssey, mentor, echo, cereal and even the month of January. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/6/) — So a myth is not only a story: it is a store-room of words that we still use every day. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/7/) — In Greek myth Pan was the god of the wild, of shepherds and their flocks; he was shown with a man's body, goat's horns and goat's legs and hooves. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/8/) — In one myth a nymph called Syrinx ran from Pan and was turned into reeds by a river; Pan cut reeds of different lengths, tied them together and made the first pan-pipes. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/9/) — In pan-pipes the shorter pipes play higher notes and the longer pipes play lower notes, because a shorter column of air vibrates faster. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/10/) — The Greeks said the sudden, wild fear people felt in lonely places was sent by Pan, so it was called «panic»; the book says carefully that the Mole felt awe, not panic. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/11/) — The Romans had a similar god of the woods called Faunus, and a goddess of flowers called Flora; from them come «fauna», meaning the animals of a place, and «flora», meaning its plants. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/12/) — Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, was named after the god Pan by J. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/13/) — Barrie, and he too plays pipes in the woods. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/15/) — When Odysseus got home, many men were feasting in his hall, eating his food and wanting to marry his wife Penelope; he came in dressed as a beggar and, with his son and loyal helpers, drove them out, which is why Grahame named Toad's chapter after him. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/17/) — «Echo» comes from a nymph called Echo who could only repeat the last words others said; «cereal» comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain; January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways with two faces. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/18/) — «Dulce Domum», the title of the Mole's chapter, is Latin for «sweet home»; the Latin «domus», a house, also gave us «domestic», meaning to do with the home. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/19/) — In 1967 the band Pink Floyd named their first album «The Piper at the Gates of Dawn» after this chapter of the book. - ← previous: [Kipling's word games: «Best Beloved», the 'Stute Fish, «Humph!» and the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/42-kipling-s-word-games-best-beloved-stute-fish-humph-and-the-great-grey-green-greasy-limpopo/) - next →: [Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)