Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Paean
Definition:
Let's say you're in ancient Greece and you want to thank the gods for giving you something awesome—you know, like a really tasty orange or the death of one of your enemies. What do you do?
You write a paean, of course.
A paean is a song of elation, praise, or gratitude. The word "song" may be a bit misleading, though, since your average ancient Greek paean was more of a chant than a club banger.
Initially, most paeans were addressed to Apollo, the god of healing. Later, people started belting out paeans to other gods like Dionysus, the god of wine, and Helios, the god of the sun—presumably to give thanks for good picnicking conditions.
Eventually, lyric poets started writing paeans for mere mortals. Two of the biggest paean pros were Bacchylides and Pindar, who were also two of the Nine Lyric Poets… which was like the Murderer's Row of ancient Greek poetry.