Syrinx (mythology)

Pan and Siringa, painting of François Boucher (1759).

In Greek mythology, Syrinx (in ancient Greek Σύριγξ Syrinx) was a naiad from Arcadia who liked to hunt with a horned bow.

The god Pan found her one day when she was coming down from Mount Lyceum, fell in love with her and began to chase her until the nymph jumped into the river Ladon. There she, cornered by her, asked for help from her sisters, her nymphs, who, moved by her, turned her into a cane field.

When Pan arrived he could only embrace the reeds swaying in the wind, and the noise they produced pleased him so much that he decided to build a new musical instrument with them. He thus invented the siringa (named after the nymph) or pan flute.