A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Παιάν, Παιήων or Παιών), that is, the healing, is according to Homer the designation of the physician of the Olympian gods, who heals, for example, the wounded Ares and Hades. (Il. 5.401, 899.) After the time of Homer and Hesiod, the word Παιάν becomes a surname of Asclepius, the god who had the power of healing. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1494; Verg. A. 7.769.) The name was, however, used also in the more general sense of deliverer from any evil or calamity (Pind. P. 4.480), and was thus applied to Apollo and Thanatos, or Death, who are conceived as delivering men from the pains and sorrows of life. (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 154 ; Paus. 1.34.2 ; Eur. Hipp. 1373.) With regard to Apollo and Thanatos however, the name may at the same time contain an allusion to παίειν, to strike, since both are also regarded as destroyers. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 137.) From Apollo himnselo the name

Paean was transferred to the song dedicated to him, that is, to hymns chanted to Apollo for the purpose of averting an evil, and to warlike songs, which were sung before or during a battle.

[L.S]