a priori:

existing in the mind prior to and independent of experience, as a faculty or character trait.

 

“Great Pan is dead”:

quote from the dialogue “On the Failure of Oracles” by the Greek historian Plutarch (46–119 AD); according to him Pan is the only Greek god who actually dies.  During the reign of Tiberius (14–37 AD), the news of Pan's death came to Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island of Paxi.  A divine voice hailed him across the water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead."  Thamus did this & the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments.  In Greek religion Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs, his homeland in rustic Arcadia.

 

Doric age:

Spengler defines this as the Spring time of Apollonian Culture, 1100-500 BC, an early period when the ornament & architecture are an expression of the young world feeling

 

Gothic age:

Spengler defines this as the Spring time of Faustian Culture, 900-1500 AD; art historians consider it somewhat later, from the 12th century to the late 15th century; a style that developed in N. France out of Romanesque art leading to the concurrent development of Gothic architecture, spreading to all of Europe, climaxing in the late 14th century, with International Gothic (although in many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century).

 

Romanticism:

a period Spengler designates as the late Spring of Faustian Culture reflecting the exhaustion of strict creativeness, the dissolution of grand form, the end of the Style; he  associates it with “Classicism", Empire and Biedermeyer (artistic styles of literature, music, visual arts & interior design 1815-48), Beethoven (1770–1827) & Delacroix (1798–1863).  Art historians define it as an artistic, literary, musical & intellectual movement in Europe, late 18th century, peaking 1800 to 1850; characterized by an emphasis on emotion & individualism, the glorification of the past & nature; a reaction against the Industrial Revolution, the norms of the Age of Enlightenment & the scientific rationalization of nature