Syrinx

In answer, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god's frustrated breath blew across them.

Ovid includes the story of Pan and Syrinx in Book One of the Metamorphoses, where it is told by Mercury to Argus in the course of lulling him asleep in order to kill him.

[2] The story is also told in Achilles Tatius' novel Leucippe and Clitophon where the eponymous heroine is subjected to a virginity test by entering a cave where Pan has left syrinx pipes that will sound a melody if she passes.

Syrinx is the name of one of the main characters in the Night's Dawn Trilogy of space opera novels by British author Peter F. Hamilton.

A 1972 poem by James Merrill, titled "Syrinx", draws on several aspects on the mythological tale, with the poet himself identifying with the celebrated nymph, desiring to become not just a "reed" but a "thinking reed" (in contrast to a "thinking stone", as critic Helen Vendler has observed, noting the influence of a Wallace Stevens lyric, "Le Monocle de Mon Oncle").

[6] In Dark Places of Wisdom, Peter Kingsley discusses in some detail the use of the word in Parmenides' poem and in association with the ancient practice of incubation.

[8] The story of Pan and Syrinx is the inspiration for the first movement in Benjamin Britten's work for solo oboe, Six Metamorphoses after Ovid first performed in 1951.

Gustav Holst alludes to the story of Pan and Syrinx in the opening of his Choral Symphony, which draws from the text of John Keats' 1818 poem "Endymion."

The British folk-rock band Oberon included a flute solo called "Syrinx" on its 1970 album, A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Related to the Rush reference, Maryland based rockers Clutch mention the Temples of Syrinx in their song "10001110101" from their album Robot Hive/Exodus.