Sylvanus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in mythology, a rural Latin deity, who is generally represented as half a man and half a goat. He was sometimes represented as holding a cypress in his hand. SYLVESTER I., a Pope who governed the Church during the reign of Constantine I. He was famous for the number of churches completed during his reign, among them the basilicas St. Peter's and St. Paul's, for his various Church laws and his influence over the emperor. He held office in 314-335. SYLVESTER II., a Pope, a native of Auvergne, was of an obscure family, but received a superior education, study ing first in the monastery of Aurillac and afterward in Spain. He was made abbot of Bobbio by the Emperor Otho II., and became very distinguished as a teacher. His attainments in science procured him the reputation of a magician. Among the numerous useful inventions attributed to Sylvester II. is the balance clock, which was in use till the adoption of the pendulum in 1650. Sylvester II. was tutor to Otho III., and subsequently head of the school of Rheims, which he made one of the first in Europe, Robert, afterward King of France, was among his pupils. He was called to the papal chair on the death of Gregory V., and administered the affairs of the church with much prudence and moderation. He was the first French pope. He died at a great age in 1003. SYLVESTER III., for three months the anti-Pope of Benedict IX. and Gregory VI., VI., but deposed by the Synod of Sutri in 1046.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's told readers in 1921 that Sylvanus was "half a man and half a goat" — a description modern scholars reject as a borrowing from Pan, Faunus and the satyrs. In art and in the roughly 1,100 surviving Latin inscriptions, Silvanus (the usual modern spelling) appears as a bearded rustic man with a pruning knife, a dog and a branch or pine, and the cypress in his hand is explained by his love for the boy Cyparissus. The great change since 1921 is quantitative rather than mythological: study of those inscriptions, gathered up in Peter Dorcey's 1992 survey of the cult, showed Silvanus was one of the most popular gods of the ordinary Roman soldier, slave and farmer, especially in Dalmatia and Pannonia, though he had almost no place in literary myth. The Popes Sylvester tacked onto the same entry have fared similarly; Sylvester II is now better known by his own name, Gerbert of Aurillac, and credited less with inventing clocks than with bringing the abacus and Arabic numerals into Latin Europe.
Written for this edition, 2026.