In Greek mythology, Paean (Ancient Greek Παιάν), Paeëon or Paieon (Ancient Greek: Παιήων), or Paeon or Paion (Ancient Greek: Παιών) was the physician of the gods[1]
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 pa-ja-wo-ne.[2][3][4]
Homer and Hesiod[]
A god of healing named Παιήων is mentioned twice in the Iliad.[5] 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 φάρμακα} that produces an instant relief.[6] Hades too had a similar medical treatment by Paeon when he was shot with an arrow by Heracles.[7] 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."[8]
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."[9][10]
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.[11] Later, Paeon becomes an epithet of Asclepius, the healer-god.[12]
Notes[]
- ↑ Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2005). Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. Marshall Cavendish. p. 1069. ISBN 978-0-7614-7559-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=HC93q4gsOAwC&pg=PA1069.
- ↑ Schofield, Louise (2007). The Mycenaeans. The British Museum Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-89236-867-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=QXwzT1048Z4C&lpg=PA144&pg=PA160#v=onepage&f=false.
- ↑ "KN V 52+". http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/knossos/kn-v/kn-v/#toc-kn-v-52.
- ↑ Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=RMj7M_tGaNMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA89#v=onepage&q&f=false. At Google Books.
- ↑ Gantz, p. 96.
- ↑ "Homer, Iliad,Book 5, line 899". Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D899.
- ↑ "Homer, Iliad,Book 5, line 363". Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+5.401&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%205.401.
- ↑ "Homer, Odyssey, Book 4, line 219". Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D219.
- ↑ 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.
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, 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.
- 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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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Paean (god). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. |