When this painting debuted at the Salon of 1873, Bouguereau set the scene with a quotation from the first century Latin poet Publius Statius, describing the goat god Pan: “Conscious of his shaggy hide, and from childhood untaught to swim, he dares not trust himself to the deep waters,” In Bouguereau’s imaginative depiction of Pan’s predicament, four sprites gleefully drag the swarthy satyr into the water as a second bevy of nudes approaches.