Mt. Lykaion was an important site of religious worship in ancient Greece. Pausanias describes a sanctuary of Pan surrounded by a grove of trees. At the sanctuary were bases of statues, which by Pausanias’ time had been deprived of the statues themselves, as well as a hippodrome, where the athletic games had once been held. References to Lykaian Pan are especially abundant in Latin poetry, as for instance in Virgil's epic, the "Aeneid": “"Lupercal / Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei",” “...the Lupercal, named after the Parrhasian worship of Lykaian Pan,” and in Horace's Odes: “"Velox amoenum saepe Lucretilem / mutat Lycaeo Faunus",” “Often swift Faunus exchanges Lykaion for pleasant Lucretilis.”