Satyrs: Horny Little Men?
Who were those weird creatures from Greek myths?
First, let’s define Satyrs. They were short half-human, half-goat (horse or donkey) creatures in ancient Greek mythology. Professor Geller on the Methodology.net website describes them as follows “They have heads full of thick curls, beards that fall down to their chests, and nubby horns peeking out of their curly locks. Their noses are short and round while their ears are long and pointed. A horse or donkey tail sprouts from their lower back and sweeps down to the ground.” (Geller)
Satyrs are commonly mixed up with fauns. They are very similar creatures, especially in physical appearance. Some sources say that satyrs were the ones with the upper bodies of humans and lower bodies of horses, while fauns were just like humans except for the horns and tails. Some say that they both had goat legs. Others say that only satyrs had goat legs. It gets confusing. However, if taking the visual representations of both fauns and satyrs from pottery and other ancient artefacts, it is evident that both vary a lot in appearance and both have all the features mentioned above.
From what I have found, the key difference between the two is the gods they are worshipping. Satyrs are the followers of Dionysus, god of wine, vegetation and fertility. While fauns are the followers of Pan, god of wilderness, shepherds and nature (faun himself). Therefore, satyrs are naturally more lustful and freer than fauns. Satyrs went about their days trying to sleep with nymphs and get drunk of wine, while fauns were helping travellers and enjoying nature. Bottom line, satyrs are creepy guys and fauns are nice guys.
Now let’s focus on the satyrs themselves. What was their role in Greek mythology?
In essence, they were just horny alcoholics. In Greek Mythology they didn’t really play a crucial role except for the portrayal of free spirit and assisting the gods a few times. During the festival of Dionysus people would wear skins of goats and other animals to resemble Satyrs and participate in all sorts of “playful tricks and excesses”. (Berens) Satyrs even helped Zeus when he went to battle with the Giants. “Satyr were among the many who offered their assistance; riding into battle on their donkeys.” (Mythology Explained)
There are also a lot of types of Satyrs. Again it all comes down to two gods, Dionysus and Pan. There are the Seilenos Satyrs, children of Silenus, the first god of wine who was in a way a foster father to Dionysus and thus after Silenus died they started following Dionysus. Then we also have satyrs who are children of Pan, but those are not fauns. As far as I understood from the research of their complicated family tree satyrs the children of Pan were not his direct followers, who were fauns. They did, however, learn from Pan and played his famous Pan flute, a musical wind instrument made from broken reeds. Yet, this skill was not limited to satyrs as fauns also knew how to play it.
Satyrs and sexuality
This is probably the most important trait of satyrs — they were extremely sexual creatures. Not for any fraud reasons, though, it was because they were symbols of fertility. Satyrs were almost always depicted naked with erected phalluses. Satyrs sexual reputation is so well known that even now in modern medicine “satyriasis” means “hypersexuality”, an actual medical condition. “Some vase paintings show satyrs ejaculating while playing, and one even shows a bee deftly avoiding the discharge in mid-flight. Another vase illustrates a hirsute satyr masturbating while shoving a dildo of sorts into his anus.” (History Extra) Often depicted pursuing nymphs, raping animals and participating in orgies. (Cartwright)
Some famous Satyrs and are they actually satyrs?
The first thing that comes to mind when talking about half men half-goat creatures is Phil from “Hercules” cartoon of 1997. This guy looks and acts like a ‘satyr made family-friendly’. In reality, he probably would have had genitals showing and probably would have behaved way worse than he does in the film.
The second ‘satyr’ that comes to my mind is Mr. Tumnus from the film “The Chronicles of Narnia” (2005). He is not a satyr. Instead, he is identified as a faun. This is based on the world of Narnia in the books and the films because they also have satyrs. Narnia’s satyrs look much more goat-like than Mr. Tumnus. Their entire bodies are those of goats except that they are bipedal and have combat skills.
But what about those upper body humans and lower body horses from Narnia? Even though, it is the same concept as satyrs those come from a race of Centaurs, completely different creatures.
And what about the Minotaur? Is he a type of satyr? No, he is a separate creature from all of the others since he was a product of Pasiphae, wife of Minos, having sex with a bull as a punishment to Minos from god Poseidon. The Minotaur has traits like immense strength, huge body and regressive behaviour specific only to him.
In conclusion, satyrs are small horny men with both human and goat (horse, donkey) features. They love to drink, trick people and have sex. They are primarily followers of the god Dionysus and they are the masters of Pan flute. They are also quite often confused with fauns who are god Pan’s followers. Furthermore, in Greek mythology, there are a lot of mixed bread creatures like fauns, centaurs, the Minotaur and satyrs just one of those species.
References
Berens, E. M. A hand-book of mythology: the myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome. New York, 1880.
Cartwright, Mark. https://www.worldhistory.org/satyr/. 24 June 2021. 2 December 2021.
Geller, Prof. https://mythology.net/greek/greek-creatures/satyr/. 26 March 2018. 2 December 2021.
History Extra. https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/a-brief-history-of-sex-and-sexuality-in-ancient-greece/. 22 September 2021. 2 December 2021.
Mythology Explained. https://mythologyexplained.com/the-satyrs-and-fauns/. n.d. 2 December 2021.
Work of Makron. Satyr and Maenad / Vase by Makron. Ceramics.
