Faunus

The Roman god of the woodland. Faunus was the son of Picus and grandson of Saturn. Faunus was also the god of the fertility of the fields and flocks. Roman art always seemed to portray him as a satyr-like god, and he seemed to resemble Pan. His festival was held on February 15, called the Lupercalia.

Faunus was also seen as an early king of Italy. His son Latinus became the eponym of the region of Latium, and its people, the Latins.

According to Ovid, in Fasti, at one time, he saw Omphale, queen of Lydia, and he wanted to ravish her. But at that time, Hercules (Heracles) was serving as Omphale's slave. The Lydian queen would dress the hero in women's clothing. One night, Faunus entered the queen's chamber. He thought it was the queen because of her garment, but when raised the garment in order to penetrate her with his phallus, he felt thick, coarse hair on the unsuspecting hero's bottoms. This caught the god by surprise, but gave Hercules enough time to wake. Hercules pushed Faunas very hard so that he landed metres away, on his back. Omphale, hearing the crash, ordered her servants to bring torches and they all saw the god lying on his back, naked, helpless and unable to get up. Hercules and the queen laughed at the embarrassed god. It was for this reason that Faunas always demanded that none of his followers wear clothes during the performance of his rituals.