who is often named the father of pan
Pan (god) The parentage of Pan is unclear;[14] generally he is the son of Hermes, although occasionally in some myths he is the son of Zeus, or Dionysus, with whom his mother is said to be a wood nymph, sometimes Dryope or, even in the 5th-century AD source Dionysiaca by Nonnus (14.92), Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. In some early sources such as Pindar, his father is Apollo via Penelope, the wife of Odysseus.[15] Herodotus (2.145), Cicero (ND 3.22.56), Apollodorus (7.38) and Hyginus (Fabulae 224) all make Hermes and Penelope his parents. Pausanias 8.12.5 records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. Other sources (Duris of Samos; the Vergilian commentator Servius) report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result.[16] This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for "all" (πᾶν).[17]