παιάν, χορικό τραγούδι, ύμνος απευθυνόμενος πρώτα στον Απόλλωνα και στην ’ρτεμη, ιδιαίτερα ως ευχαριστήριος για τη λύτρωση από κακό (ασθένεια, λοιμός κτλ.)· αργότερα απευθυνόταν προς οποιονδήποτε άλλο θεό. Παιάν ήταν επίσης ένα θριαμβευτικό τραγούδι μετά από νίκη σε πόλεμο ή σε εθνικούς αγώνες. Γενικά, μια σοβαρή ωδή.
Ο Πρόκλος στη Χρηστομάθειά του (11) καθορίζει: "ο δε Παιάν, έστιν είδος ωδής εις πάντας νυν γραφόμενος θεούς· το δε παλαιόν, ιδίως απενέμετο τω Απόλλωνι και τη Αρτέμιδι επί καταπαύσει λοιμών και νόσων αδόμενος· καταχρηστικώς δε και τα προσόδια τινές παιάνες λέγουσιν" (ο παιάν είναι είδος ωδής απευθυνόμενης τώρα σε όλους τους θεούς· στα παλαιά χρόνια απευθυνόταν ιδιαίτερα στον Απόλλωνα και την ’ρτεμη για τη λύτρωση από λοιμούς και αρρώστιες· και καταχρηστικά μερικοί ονομάζουν και τα προσόδια παιάνες).
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Paean
(Gk. paian, paiēōn, paiōn, paōn).
Ancient Greek choral hymn addressed to Apollo, Artemis, Zeus, Dionysus, Asclepius or Hygieia. Proclus's Useful Knowledge defines it as a species of song specifically assigned to be sung to Apollo and Artemis for the cessation of plagues and maladies but later written for all the gods. The term is also applied to military hymns; hymns composed in honour of an important event, such as the ratification of a treaty; and, later, hymns addressed to prominent persons. In the Iliad (i.472–4) the term appears in connection with a hymn sung to Apollo as a propitiation for the Greek army's offence against the god; and later (xxii.391–4) the term is used to describe a piece sung in celebration of a victory. In addition, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo preserves the famous cry of the Cretan paean singers, ‘Ie Paean’ (iēpaiēon), which was used as an epithet for Apollo in his role as healer. Pseudo-Plutarch (On Music, 1134b–d, 1146b–c), in the course of his survey of the Spartan musical pioneers, referred to Thaletas, Xenodamus, Xenocritus and Pindar as composers of paeans, but he also made it clear that there was some disagreement about the precise distinction between a paean and a hyporchēma. In the works of Pindar, however, he maintained that the distinction is clear; a fragment perhaps from one of Pindar's threnodies does indicate the poet's awareness of generic distinctions (frag.128c1–9). Several paeans are counted among the surviving musical fragments, including the two famous examples from the Athenian treasury (see Hymn, §I, 1).
The paean was flexible enough to serve diverse literary, devotional, narrative, religious and civic purposes in Greek society. The inherent musicality of the genre is evident not only in the allusions that abound in the texts themselves but also in the way the text and music work together to create rhythmic variety within the larger metric framework and to articulate structural patterns in the overall form.
See also Greece, §I, 4.
Bibliography
W. Schubart: ‘Ein griechische Papyrus mit Noten’, Sitzungsbericht Berlin, xxxvi (1918), 763–8
L. Deubner: ‘Paian’, Neue Jahrbücher, xxii (1919), 385–406
G. Pighi: ‘Ricerche sulla notazione ritmica greca’, Aegyptus, xxi (1941), 189–220; xxiii (1943), 169–243; xxxix (1959), 280–89
A.J. Neubecker: Altgriechische Musik (Darmstadt, 1977), 44
T.J. Mathiesen: Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 36–58
For further bibliography see Hymn, §I.
Thomas J. Mathiesen
Grove
