Female fauns and other imponderables

Posted on June 25, 2018 (Subscribe to Blog)

I love mythology and all the stories of fantastic beasts and tragic monsters. And I love giving these mythical creatures my own spin, fitting them into my Island of Fog world with a few unique traits that make them "mine."

My latest book, Forest of Souls, features a female faun. She's right there on the cover, her hair slicked back and some kind of gold warpaint smeared across her head and face. A little unusual, no? You'd be forgiven for thinking she's not your traditional faun. In fact, some people may think a "female faun" is an oxymoron on the basis that a faun is, by some definitions, male:

"One of a class of lustful rural gods, represented as a man with a goat's horns, ears, legs, and tail."

Then again, others will argue that the above description is in fact a satyr, and that a faun is a much gentler and rather foolish creature. But the satyr is from Greek mythology, and the faun is Roman, so in that sense they might be seen as the same creature:

"Faun, in Roman mythology, is a creature that is part human and part goat, akin to a Greek satyr. The name faun is derived from Faunus, the name of an ancient Italic deity of forests, fields, and herds, who from the 2nd Century BCE was associated with the Greek god Pan."

And that's another thing. Sometimes the satyr is described as part goat and the faun as part deer. In any case, both have the same "backward" legs with cloven hoofs, and horns on their heads, so maybe that's a minor quibble.

Some suggest a workaround to all this confusion, suggesting there's a male satyr and a female satyress, both of whom are fauns in the same way a rooster and a hen are chickens. In which case, it's okay to have a female faun.

Right?

Fauns Just a few of the many depictions of fauns, from cutesy to scary -- and actually quite a few females once you start looking for them!

Let's digress for a moment. Throughout my Island of Fog books, I ignore the fact that certain mythological creatures might be one-off monsters or unique tragic figures. Instead, I write them as full-blown species in their own right. Take Medusa, for example. The sinister, deadly woman has a head of snakes and a stare that will turn you to stone. In fact, Medusa was one of three Gorgon sisters (the other two being Stheno and Euryale), and their story is way more complex than the simple one described here. But a head of snakes and a deadly gaze is what everyone thinks of when referring to Medusa, so those are two ingredients a fantasy writer will normally include whenever speaking of that Gorgon sister.

But why stop there? If I clung to the legendary story of Medusa, I'd have to concede that she was slain by Perseus thousands of years ago, and then I couldn't use her in my books in the modern world. So instead of treating Medusa as the tragic figure she was, I (like many other authors) turned her into a full-blown species. The Gorgon sisters became simply gorgons, a rare creature you don't want to meet.

(With a nod to the fantastic original Clash of the Titans movie and its remake, my gorgons have the same serpentine body from the waist down. Some writers depict them as simply human women with viper hair and a mean stare. In my books, Molly the gorgon is a shapeshifter, so I get to do both versions.)

The same can be said of the Minotaur, who was an embarrassingly monstrous half-man, half-bull creature with an appetite for human flesh, and whose father Minos built a labyrinth for him to run around in, a kind of walled playground with occasional sacrificial offerings tossed in. Yes, this is grossly simplified version of the story. But again, many fantasy authors, including me, have turned this undesirable offspring into an established species of bullheaded creatures.

I did the same thing with the Harpies. Some ancient stories state they're two sisters, the offspring of Thaumas and Electra. Other stories suggest they're "the hounds of mighty Zeus" or "ministers of the Thunderer," or simply wind spirits. Their name means "snatchers" or "swift robbers." This is pretty much how I portrayed them in my books. The only difference is that I included male harpies as well -- because if you have a full-blown species, you have to have males, right? That said, I kept the females as the dominant sex, with their nest run by a queen and the males insufferably weak. So, in that sense, I maintained the perception of harpies being female.

Satyr -- Male Faun

Which brings me back to fauns. In the latest Island of Fog book, Forest of Souls, the villain is a female faun. At some point, I mention satyrs as being gruff, overbearing males. Since I don't really like the word "satyress," I went with the idea that males and females alike are fauns while the alpha male in each clan is known as a satyr.

I think that fits with the general perception of a satyr being manly and domineering. And it's nice having clarification within my own Fog universe. I'm taking away the confusion and keeping it simple. The fact that I'm combining both Roman and Greek mythology is irrelevant; in my Fog world, all cultures are included as one. The way I see it, the Fog world has been around many thousands of years and is the source of all myths and legends as we know them today; they all arose from multiple sightings of fantastic creatures that crossed over from the Fog world in the distant past.

I haven't delved too deeply into faun culture in Forest of Souls, but I want to expand on it when this particular faun returns twenty years later in Death Storm, Book 5 of the Legacies series. One thing I did touch on, though, is her "place of tranquility." I don't believe I've read anything about this anywhere, but it popped into my head as being a likely faun trait -- that each has a personal tree they call their own. But it's not just any tree. It's a place that lies just outside the normal realm. I'm looking forward to exploring that idea a little more later.

Further reading

Here are some more faun-tastic books on Amazon...

"Faun & Games", "B074Z5ZBZL" => "Pan's Labyrinth", "B09BLR621D" => "Broken Faun", ); foreach ($asins as $k => $v) { echo " $\"$v\"$ "; } ?>

Comment by ROGER ESCHBACHER on Monday, June 25, 2018...

A wonderfully informative and in-depth read! I like learning new things.

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Monday, June 25, 2018...

Thank you, Roger!

Comment by BRIAN B. on Tuesday, June 26, 2018...

Preaching to your faunclub again?

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Tuesday, June 26, 2018...

LOL!

You're killing me with your clever wit and fauny satyr...

Comment by GRAEME JENKS on Tuesday, June 26, 2018...

This is why I love fantasy, you can create the weirdest of creatures and give them a story. My favourite depiction of Fauns is from Pans Labrynth. Big and strong compared to Narnia small and timid versions.

Lol, can't wait for the next Island of Fog book, feels like it's been years since last.

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Tuesday, June 26, 2018...

It has been years, Graeme — four, to be exact! And yes, Pan's Labyrinth is awesome.

Comment by VIVEENA CHAY on Tuesday, February 4, 2020...

So. Fauna, Pan's wife. The Fauni, female soothsayers of the Faun... Roman origins. Romans were more gender-friendly than the Greeks.

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