SATYRS. The Satyrs of Greek mythology were spirits or demons who lived in mountains and woods. They are represented as having eans like those of a goat, bristling hair, and short tails. Following in the train of Dionysus, they made merry with pipe and flute. " They were considered as foes to mankind, because they played people all kinds of roguish pranks, and frightened them by impish tricks " (Seyffert). Dr. A. B. Gough points out that at the earliest period to which we can trace them, Satyrs, Seileni, Cyclopes, and Centaurs were very similar to one another, but in course of time they were differentiated. In the Old Testament demons of a similar kind seem to be referred to as Se`irim, a term which means literally " hairy ones." Since a word Se'irim also means " be-goats," it has been assumed that these Hebrew demons were goat-shaped, but the assump tion is not necessary. The Se'irim were wild and semi
human in appearance. In Isaiah xiii. 21 they are spoken of as dancing amid the desolate ruins of Babylon. The Se`irim have been connected by some scholars with an Egyptian god corresponding to Pan (q.v.). It is possible, however, that they may preserve a hint of early tradi tions concerning some tribe or tribes of real men, " hairy beings " who were supposed to dwell (and play pranks) in the desert, were regarded as formidable, and looked upon as devils. Jane Harrison (Prolegomena, 2nd ed., 1905) thinks that the Satyrs of the Greeks were to Homer and Pindar " the representatives of an actual primitive population." They were in fact identical with the Satrae, a wild Thracian tribe. See Encycl. O. Seyffert, Diet.; Alfred B. Gough, The Primitive Savage in Early Art and Tradition, 1910.