Ah, this is one of my hobby horses! Despite the modern enthusiasm for calling the heads on the coins of Pantacapaeum
Pan, the heads are actually the heads of
Satyrs. For a Greek, the name of the city
had nothing to do with
Pan, but rather the first element was PANTA, something quite different.
Satyrs, however, in
Greek mythology were often associated with northern lands and the
area of the Bosporos.
Satyrs had wild and grotesque physiognomies, while
Pan was often depicted in a more nearly normal (though sometimes somewhat goat-ish) manner and seldom does he have the sorts of ears usual to the
satyrs.
People will remain unconvinced and continue to see the heads as
Pan, and having been though this argument many times, I am now too tired to indulge in it again at length.
