PADUS, a river of ancient Italy. (See Po.)
PÆAN (παῖν, παῖνος, and παῖν), a hymn or song originally sung in honour of Apollo, and deriving its name, as is generally supposed, from Pæan, the god of healing, who, although alluded to in Homer as a distinct deity, was in all probability identical with Apollo. At all events, the name and office of healing after Homer's time were transferred to Apollo; he was invoked by the crv bjc Παιν (Esch. Ag. 146; Soph. Ed. Tyr. 154); and in the choral chants sung to his honour the burden was ὑπὸ τὸ Παιν (Athenæus, xv., p. 696, &c.). The pæan was invariably a loud and joyous song expressive of hope and confidence. It was sung after any great deliverance, as a plague (Il. i. 473), or a battle (Il. xxii. 391). The Greek troops occasionally sung it as a war-song previous to an engagement (Xen. Anab. i. 8, § 17), which, if we may trust the statement of the scholiast on Thucydides, i. 50, was sacred to Ares or Mars; while that engaged in after the victory was addressed to Apollo. Other gods, and even mortals, had pæans occasionally sung to their honour. Thus the Lacedæmonians sang a pæan to Poseidon (Xen. Hell. iv. 7, § 4), and the Greek army to Zeus (Xen. Anab. iii. 2, § 9). Aratus sang pæans to the Macedonian Antigonous (Plat. Cleom. 16); a similar practice was employed at Delphi in honour of the Macedonian Craterus; and the Rhodians chanted the triumphant song to the praise of Ptolemæus I. of Egypt (Athen. xv., p. 696). (See Müller's Dorians, and Hist. of Greek Literature.)