Pan's Jesters

Why Pan's Jesters?

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Is the merging of an attitude and a lifestyle, which represents the union between the figures of the jesters and the god Pan.

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The jester, in the collective imagery, is seen as a low figure, secondary and of little interest, silly, funny, with colorful clothes, that has the sole purpose of making the lords and their courts laugh.

BUT IT'S NOT ONLY THIS!

The jester was the most multifaceted figure in the Middle Ages, he knew games of skill and sleight of hand, could dance, sing, play up to ten different instruments, knew how to perform theatrical scenes in which he himself played several characters, so likewise we give life to our own emotions and various alter egos, through the characters, with their scenes and stories in the comic.

But above all, the jester was one of the most learned figures over time, constituting a cultural medium, a figure of great importance. He does not identify with the people, but tries to instruct and educate them. Spreading news, information and knowledge.

Is therefore not a low or unimportant figure.

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In connection with the jester the god Pan is considered an inferior deity, funny and often mistreated, never officially welcomed in the Olympus, perhaps because of the grotesque aspect, his being wild, maybe because it is too rough, too peaceful to share the logic of power, or simply too free to follow the laws of other gods!

However, in many ancient myths and legends he is considered a deity prior to, or contemporary, to the father of the gods Zeus, and was only thanks to his terrifying scream, capable to make his opponents flee in a "panic" that the gods managed to win the mythical wars against Titans and Giants.

These facts thus place him on another level and plane that is anything but inferior to the other gods.

He prefers to live in the forests with the fauna, in close contact with shepherds, hunters, but above all with the nymphs and maenads, for which he had a weakness.

And precisely because of his wild nature and the tendency to indulge in orgiastic excesses he was compared with Dionysus and was confused and associated with the Satyrs.

In fact, even in ancient Greece he was worshiped in nature, in woods, caves, meadows and clearings, was therefore the only god who did not have actual temples built in his honor.

Represents for us being an "outsider" or out of place.

Pan is also the only one whose legend of his death is told, announced by a terrifying scream followed by many atrocious screams of his followers, probably caused by the arrival of christianity that started using his image as the one of "the opponent" Satan, thus giving him only negative connotations.

While for us "Pan's Jesters" being undervalued and unjuslty demonized has strengthened even more his image and meaning, which in some way we intend to defend and bring to new light, free from prejudices and senseless fears imposed by foolish fanaticisms.

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To further unite these figures and symbols we find the SATYRIC DRAMA.

It can be traced back to the sphere of the cult of Dionysus (already compared with Pan), it was characterized by a fairly simple structure where the choir was consisting of men disguised as goat satyrs with burlesque behavior, who moved on the stage alternating moments of theatrical acting with moments of lively dance called Sìkinnis.

The Satyric Drama was a comedy like performance which was usually staged after a tragedy in order to lift the spirits in the audience. The authors of the satyr plays were usually the tragedians.

In a happy symbiosis the satyric drama presented the structure of tragedy and the farcical color of comedy.

The stories were sometimes even parodies of mythological episodes, who presented the satyrs in the most disparate situations, therefore we find the funny and grotesque aspects, the characters of the tragedy as well as monsters and brigands of the popular tradition.

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From this ancient figures, symbologies and theatrical traditions, came to be the jesters and later in 1750 the so called "art commedy"was born, giving new meaning to the word Art, with professional artists using masks and improvising their parts in their plays...

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So at the end of adolescence we naturally adopted and made the figure of the jester our own, becoming the "Pan's Jesters" and combining our ideas to express them through these masks and Art.