The city had been known as Banias, an Arabic pronunciation of Panias (there is no p in Arabic). This name honoured the Greek god Pan — a half-man, half-goat deity often depicted playing a flute — who was worshipped here. When Jesus passed this way, the area was ruled by Herod the Great’s son Philip, who had renamed the city Caesarea. To distinguish it from the coastal Caesarea Maritima (By the Sea), it became known as Caesarea Philippi.