Paean (god)
In Greek mythology, Paean (Ancient Greek: Παιάν), Paeëon or Paieon (Παιήων), or Paeon or Paion (Παιών, 'physician, healer'), was a minor god, a divine physician of the gods, and an epithet shared by Apollo, Asclepius and Helios.[1][2]
Name and etymology
[edit]The name Paeon (Παιών, Παιάων) is commonly derived from the ritual cry iē paiṓn (ἰὴ παιών) or iō paián (ἰὼ παιάν), understood as the opening invocation of a song. The underlying form is reconstructed as *paiá-(w)ōn (*παιά-(ϝ)ων), interpreted as meaning "who heals illness through magic".[3]
The theonym is already attested in Mycenaean Greek as pa-ja-wo-ne (Paiāwonei, 𐀞𐀊𐀺𐀚), an alternative name of Apollo.[4][5][3]
Homer and Hesiod
[edit]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, phármăkă) 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 Paean 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] Later, perhaps due to his identification with Apollo, Helios was also invoked as "Paion."[1][14]
Notes
[edit]- 1 2 Παιάν. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- ↑ Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2005). Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. Marshall Cavendish. p. 1069. ISBN 978-0-7614-7559-0.
- 1 2 Beekes 2009, p. 1142.
- ↑ Schofield, Louise (2007). The Mycenaeans. The British Museum Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-89236-867-9.
- ↑ Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. At Google Books.
- ↑ Gantz, p. 96.
- ↑ "Homer, Iliad, Book 5, line 899". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
- ↑ "Homer, Iliad, Book 5, line 363". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
- ↑ "Homer, Odyssey, Book 4, line 219". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Tufts University.
- ↑ Hesiod & Evelyn-White 2007, p. 159.
- ↑ Graf 2009, p. 66–67.
- ↑ Graf 2009, pp. 66–67.
- ↑ Eustathius of Thessalonica, on Homer, §1494; Virgil. Aeneid, vii. 769.
- ↑ Farnell vol IV, p. 137
References
[edit]- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32186-1.
- 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 978-1-4264-7293-0.
- 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 978-0-415-31711-5.
- Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., 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, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
- Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek States vol. ΙV, Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-108-01546-2.
- 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"
External links
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