Picus, the son of Saturn and father of Faunus, was a woodland divinity, gifted with prophetic powers.
An ancient myth relates that Picus was a beautiful youth, united to a nymph called Canens. The sorceress Circe, infatuated by his beauty, endeavoured to secure his love, but he rejected her advances, and she, in revenge, changed him into a woodpecker, under which form he still retained his powers of prophecy.
Picus is represented as a youth, with a woodpecker perched upon his head, which bird became henceforth regarded as possessed of the power of prophecy.
PICUMNUS AND PILUMNUS.
Picumnus and Pilumnus were two household divinities of the Romans, who were the special presiding deities of new-born infants.
SILVANUS.
Silvanus was a woodland divinity, who, like Faunus, greatly resembled the Greek Pan. He was the presiding deity of plantations and forests, and specially protected the boundaries of fields.
Silvanus is represented as a hale old man, carrying a cypress-tree, for, according to Roman mythology, the transformation of the youth Cyparissus into the tree which bears his name was attributed to him.
His sacrifices consisted of milk, meat, wine, grapes, wheat-ears, and pigs.