Home › Glossary › Letter S

Silvanus

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Roman deity presiding over forests, wild lands, and rural boundaries, often equated with the Greek god Silvanus or Pan.

Detailed Definition
Silvanus protects forests, fields, and the edges between wild and cultivated spaces. He is a rustic deity of rural life, often conflated with Faunus. In Roman pastoral poetry, he embodies the spirit of the countryside and its hidden sanctuaries. Poets invoke Silvanus to celebrate nature’s solitude, the mystery of groves, or the liminal zones where civilization meets wilderness—making him a favorite in bucolic and meditative verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Silvanus, god of woods and fields, appears in Virgil’s Eclogues as “Silvanus haunting wild places”; Ovid’s Fasti notes his protection of shepherds and boundaries; In Horace’s Epodes, Silvanus “drives wolves from flocks”; Roman inscriptions show Silvanus with dog and branch, guardian of estates; In pastoral poetry, Silvanus “whispers through rustling leaves”; Propertius invokes Silvanus to bless rural love trysts.
Additional Notes
Silvanus is a Roman god of woods, fields, and boundaries; appears in Virgil’s Eclogues and Horace; symbolizes rustic protection, wild nature, and territorial markers; useful in pastoral or ecological poetry; students should note his depiction with dog, branch, and wolf skin; he guards flocks and farms; unlike Faunus, he is not prophetic but practical; his name means “of the forest”; he exemplifies Roman animism toward landscape.
Also Known As
Forest Spirit Woodland Guardian Boundary God Sylvan Protector Silas
Skip to main content