faun

thumb|A faun, as painted by Hungary|Hungarian painter [[Pál Szinyei Merse in 1867]] thumb|upright|A drawing of a Faun. The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology.

Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before their conflation with Greek satyrs, they and Faunus were represented as naked men (e.g. the Barberini Faun). Later fauns became copies of the satyrs of Greek mythology, who themselves were originally shown as part-horse rather than part-goat.