Paean (god)

In Greek mythology, Paean, Paeëon or Paieon, or Paeon or Paion, was a divine physician of the gods, and an epithet shared by Apollo, Asclepius and Helios.

Name and etymology

The name Paeon is commonly derived from the ritual cry iē paiṓn or iō paián, understood as the opening invocation of a song. The underlying form is reconstructed as *paiá-ōn, interpreted as meaning "who heals illness through magic".
The theonym is already attested in Mycenaean Greek as pa-ja-wo-ne, an alternative name of Apollo.

Homer and Hesiod

A god of healing named Παιήων is mentioned twice in the Iliad. 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 that produces an instant relief. Hades too had a similar medical treatment by Paeon when he was shot with an arrow by Heracles. In the Odyssey, Homer says of Egypt, "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."
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."
In time, Paeon became an epithet of Apollo, in his capacity as a god capable of bringing disease and therefore propitiated as a god of healing. Later, Paeon becomes an epithet of Asclepius, the healer-god. Later, perhaps due to his identification with Apollo, Helios was also invoked as "Paion."