Paean (god)

This article is about the god. For other uses, see Paean (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Paean (Greek: Παιάν), Paeëon or Paieon (Greek: Παιήων), or Paeon or Paion (Greek: Παιών) was the physician of the gods.[1][2]

Mycenaean Greece

The name Paean is believed to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek as an alternative name of Apollo; the attested form of the name, written in Linear B, is 𐀞𐀊𐀍𐀚, pa-ja-wo-ne.[3][4][5]

Homer and Hesiod

A god of healing named Παιήων is mentioned twice in the Iliad.[6] In book 5, the Olympian god of war Ares is wounded by mortal hero Diomedes, who is assisted by Athena. Ares is taken up to Olympus in a hurry, where Paeon applies medicine (Ancient Greek: φάρμακα) that produces an instant relief.[7] Hades too had a similar medical treatment by Paeon when he was shot with an arrow by Heracles.[8] In the Odyssey, Homer says of Egypt, "[T]here the earth, the giver of grain, bears greatest store of drugs, many that are healing when mixed, and many that are baneful; there every man is a physician, wise above human kind; for they are of the race of Paeeon."[9]

Hesiod identifies Paeon as an individual deity: "Unless Phoebus Apollo should save him from death, or Paean himself who knows the remedies for all things."[10][11]

In time, Paeon (more usually spelled Paean) became an epithet of Apollo, in his capacity as a god capable of bringing disease and therefore propitiated as a god of healing.[12] Later, Paeon becomes an epithet of Asclepius, the healer-god.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Παιάν. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ↑ Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2005). Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. Marshall Cavendish. p. 1069. ISBN 978-0-7614-7559-0.
  3. ↑ Schofield, Louise (2007). The Mycenaeans. The British Museum Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-89236-867-9.
  4. ↑ "KN V 52+". Deaditerranean: Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B.
  5. ↑ Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. At Google Books.
  6. ↑ Gantz, p. 96.
  7. ↑ "Homer, Iliad,Book 5, line 899". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
  8. ↑ "Homer, Iliad,Book 5, line 363". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
  9. ↑ "Homer, Odyssey, Book 4, line 219". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
  10. ↑ Hesiod & Evelyn-White 2007, p. 159.
  11. ↑ Graf 2009, p. 66–67.
  12. ↑ Graf 2009, pp. 66–67.
  13. ↑ Eustathius of Thessalonica, on Homer, §1494; Virgil. Aeneid, vii. 769.

References

  • Connor, Peter, "Paeon" in Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology, Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Corporation (January 2005). ISBN 978-0-7614-7559-0.
  • Hesiod; Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (2007). Hesiod the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. BiblioBazaar, LLC. ISBN 1-4264-7293-5. 
  • Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0801853609 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0801853623 (Vol. 2).
  • Graf, Fritz (2009). Apollo. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-31711-8. 
  • Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
  • Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
  • Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
  • Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Paean"
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