Pan

Pan, in Greek religion and mythology

Pan (păn), in Greek religion and mythology, pastoral god of fertility. He was worshiped principally in Arcadia, and one legend states that he was the son of Hermes, another Arcadian god. Pan was supposed to make flocks fertile; when he did not, his image was flogged to stimulate him. He was depicted as a merry, ugly man with the horns, ears, and legs of a goat. Occasionally ill-tempered, he loved to frighten unwary travelers (hence the word panic). All his myths deal with amorous affairs. In a famous tale he pursued the nymph Syrinx, but before she was overtaken her sister nymphs changed her into a reed. Thus Pan plays the reed, or syrinx, in memory of her. Later, when Pan was worshiped in other parts of Greece and in Rome, he became associated with the Greek Dionysus and identified with the Roman Faunus, both gods of fertility.

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Pan, in astronomy

Pan, in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XVIII (or S18), Pan is 12.5 mi (20 km) in diameter, orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 83,000 mi (133,583 km), and has an orbital period of 0.575 earth days. The rotational period is unknown but is assumed to be the same as the orbital period. It was discovered by Mark R. Showalter at the Ames Research Center in California in 1990 while reviewing photographs taken by Voyager 1 during its flyby of Saturn in 1980. The innermost of Saturn's confirmed moons, Pan's orbit is within the Encke Division, or Encke Gap, of Saturn's A ring, where it functions as a shepherd satellite (a moon that limits the extent of a planetary ring through gravitational forces), keeping the gap open.

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Pan

Greek fertility deity with a half-human, half-animal form. The Romans associated him with Faunus. Pan was usually said to be the son of Hermes. He was often represented as a vigorous and lustful figure with the horns, legs, and ears of a goat; in later art his human parts were more emphasized. Some Christian depictions of the Devil bear a striking resemblance to Pan. Pan haunted the high hills, where he was chiefly concerned with flocks and herds. Like a shepherd, Pan was a piper, and he rested at noon. He could inspire irrational terror in humans, and the word panic comes from his name.

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(1) To scroll to a different part of an image on screen.

(2) To select a certain part of a wide screen image in order to make it fit on a standard TV screen. See pan & scan.

(3) (Processor Area Network) A group of resources, including processors, memory, storage, network connections and DVDs, that are assembled into virtual servers and clusters. The term was coined in 2000 by Egenera, Inc., Marlboro, MA (www.egenera.com). Egenera's PAN Manager software manages and provisions its blade servers as a virtual pool of computer resources. See blade server.

(4) (PAN) (Personal Area Network) See WPAN.

(5) (PAN) (Personal Area Network) An experimental technology from IBM's Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA, that lets people transfer information by touch. For example, one could exchange business card data by shaking hands. By touching your pager in one hand, you could send the calling telephone number to your cellphone in the other. A PAN-enabled unit worn on the wrist could transmit a user's ID to an ATM or security checkpoint. The minuscule amount of current conducted through the body is a thousand times less than the current generated by combing your hair.

Touch and Transfer

Reminiscent of the movie E.T., this photo depicts the transfer of business card information by touching fingers. (Image courtesy of IBM Almaden Research Center.)

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Pan

man-goat of bawdy and lecherous ways. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 798]

See : Lust