Cretan "Paiawones" Huxley, George Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1975; 16, 2; ProQuest pg. 119

Cretan Paiawones 
George Huxley 

I N THE HOMERIC Hymn to Apollo the god leads the Knossians up from 
the harbour of Krisa to Pytho. He steps high, with his lyre in his 
hands, and the Cretans follow, beating time (516-19)-

\ , \ ",I. t:l t:l I' • ~, • I ., 
Kal\a Ka, V'l" I-"I-'ac 0' OE P'T/CCOVTEC E1TOVTO 

K ~ 'nfJ' ,. ""~ P'T/TEC 1TpOC V W Ka, ''T/1TaL'T/0V aEtDOV, 
l' I K ~ , l' , 116 ~ 

Otot T€ P'T/TWV TTaL'T/0V€C OtC£ T€ lY.lOVCa 

• 'fJ "fJ fJ' \ I , '" I EV CT7] €CCLV € 'T/KE €a P.€I\LY'TJPVV aOL07]V' 

LS] s.v. 1Ta,eXv II list 1TC(t~OVEC in line 518 under 'paean i.e. choral song', 
and the same meaning of TTaL~ovEc is assumed here by Allen, Halliday 
and Sykes in their comment Hthe paean was pre-Dorian. It was sung 
by the Achaeans to Apollo (A 472) and as a general triumphal hymn 
(X 391)."1 TTaL~ovEc cannot, however, mean 'choral songs' here; the 
reference in both parts of the construction orot TE ••• orct TE is to 
persons, and in line 518 TTaL~ovEc can only be singers.2 H. G. Evelyn­
White was therefore correct to give the translation H ... he stepped 
high and featly. So the Cretans followed him to Pytho, marching in 
time as they chanted the Ie Paean after the manner of the Cretan 
paean-singers and of those in whose hearts the heavenly Muse has put 
sweet-voiced song."3 To the various meanings of TTaLeXv. TTaL'T/wv and 
1TaLWV (respectively the Doric,' epic-Ionic and older Attid> forms of the 
originaITTaux(F)Wv) listed by LS] under the general headings of Paian 
the physician of the gods, paean the choral song, and paeon in prosody 
must be added 'singer of paeans'. 

In the Hymn to Apollo the Cretans who march to Pytho with the god 
are compared with Cretan TTaL~ovEc, singers of paeans. Now it has long 
been recognized that the paeonic metre (vvv- or v-vv or vv-v or 

1 The Homeric Hymns! (Oxford 1936) 264. 
2 A. von Blumenthal, RE 18 (1943) 2341. 
a Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (LCL. London/Cambridge [Mass.] 1950) 361. 
'W. S. Barrett on Euripides, Hippolytos 1371-73. 
5 J. Wackernagel, Glotta 14 (1925) 61-64. 

119 



120 CRETAN PAIA WONES 

-vvv) is of Cretan origin;6 it takes its name from the paean-song, and 
a special instance of it was the creticus or <two-limbed' paeon -v­

(1TUtwV 8tayvtoc). Paeonic and Cretan rhythms were closely associated 
with the seventh-century poet Thaletas,7 and hyporchemes were 
adapted to the Cretan pyrrhic-dance also by Thaletas.s Sosibios the 
Laconian antiquary even declared that all hyporchematic songs were 
Cretan.9 Hyporchemes and paeans were so closely connected that 
they could not easily be distinguished.1o Paean-singers therefore may 
be supposed originally to have sung in Crete in a Cretan metre-the 
paean or creticus, and to have performed hyporchemes, also in Crete. 
In myth one such Cretan paean-singer was, as his name shows, the 
Koures or Idaian Daktyl Paion(a)ios.H The earliest paean-singers 
would have been distinguished by the use of the simple refrain l~ 
1TUt(iFov, and although the paean-song is at the very beginning of 
extant Greek literature already associated with Apollo (Iliad 1.472-73), 
the god in whose honour the refrain was originally uttered would have 
been the healer god IIuut'FwV, 1TuLaFovEc have the same name as the 
god they serve, and similar functions to the god himself-namely to 
heal wounds and to banish plagues. Such was the role of the Cretan 
singer of paeans Thaletas, who by means of his music cured the 
Spartans of a plague in accordance with the instructions of a Pythian 
oracle.12 

That the god Paiawon, whose name became a title of Apollo and of 
other gods, was anciently a distinct divinity, was argued by Hermann 
Usener.13 It is true, as Farnell pointed out,n that Homer does not 
explicitly distinguish Paieon from Apollo, but neither does the poet 
identify them. The idea that Paiawon was originally a distinct deity 
was confirmed by a Knossian Linear B text: here pa:ia-wo-[ne? appears 

• L. Deubner, NJbb 43 (1919) 395-97; see further Wilamowitz, Griechische Verskunst 
(Berlin 1921) 330 n.l. 

7 Glaukos of Rhegion in [plut.] De mus. 10 (1134DB): see RE 5A (1934) 1213 s.n. THALETAS 1. 
8 Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 2.127 (2.52-53 Drachmann). 
II FGrHist 595 F 23. 
10 [plut.] De mus. 1134c. See also A. E. Harvey, CQ 5 (1955) 173. 
11 Pausanias 5.7.6. 
11 Pratinas in [plut.] De mus. 42 (ll46BC). Paus. 1.14.4 (who calls Thaletas 81U"1c). Thaletas 

is also said to have cured discord at Sparta: Philodemos, De mus. 18-19 (pp. 85-86 Kemke). 
Cf.Boethius, Inst.Mus. 1.1 (p.1S1, 23-26 Friedlein). For military uses of the Paian see W. K. 
Pritchett, Ancient Greek Military Practices I (UCalPub CIStu.d 7, Berkeley 1971) 105-08. 

13 Gotternamen (Bonn 1896) 153. 
a The Cults of the Greek States IV (Oxford 1907) 234-35. 



GEORGE HUXLEY 121 

as a name, not as a title, in a list of divinities including Lady Athena, 
Enyalios and Poseidon.15 Thus Paiawon was already being worshipped 
in Crete in Late Minoan II/IlIA Knossos. He was still recognized as a 
distinct divinity, not identical with Apollo, by <Hesiod' in the seventh 
or sixth century B.C. (fr.307 M.-W.): 

, \'A 1\ \ n. AQ ., 8 1 , 
Et fL1J 1TOI\I\WV 'VOLfJOC V1TEK avaTOLO cawca£ 
... , \ n' "., ,1,.' .,~ 1J aVTOC a'1Jwv• oc a1TaVTWV 'fIapp.aKa Otuw. 

and in Solon's opinion it is Apollo who makes a man a P.a.VT£C (fr.13, 
53W.), but healers do the work of Paion (fr.13, 57-58 W.), 

aAAo£ II adiJvoc 1ToAvcfJapp.a.Kov EPYOV EXOVTEC , , 
t1JTpo£ ••• 

In the Iliad Paieon heals gods by sprinkling drugs upon their wounds 
(Hades: 5.401; Ares: 5.900). In the Odyssey (4.231-32) each Egyptian 
healer is of the YEV€8A1J of Paieon; thus Paieon, like Asklepios, had 
kinsfolk who were healers amongst mankind. One of their functions 
would have been the chant of incantation (J1TCp8-r}) lrrrradirov when 
healing wounds or driving away plague. 

The fact that Paiawon was worshipped in Late Minoan Knossos does 
not of itself prove him to have been a Minoan god; his worship 
could have been introduced by the Mycenaean conquerors of Knossos. 
The name, however, has no obviously Greek etymology, and it may 
well therefore have been taken over from a pre-Greek substratum of 
speech and religion by the first Greek-speaking invaders of Crete. 
The hypothesis of a Minoan origin for Paiawon and his songs is 
strengthened by the observation that the creticus and paeon do not fit 
easily into the schemes of earliest Greek metres; in the classification 
by Professor M. L. West16 the Cretan metres fit neither the six, seven 
or eight syllable acatalecric series ending inv-v- nor the five to eight 

15 Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greekl (Cambridge 
1956) 311, no.208. The supplement has subsequently been shown to be correct (DMGi 
[Cambridge 1973] 473). The useful study of Minoan divinities by A. Furumark, "Gods of 
Ancient Crete," OpuscAthen 6 (1965) 85-98, discusses the evidence of Minoan representa­
tional art and takes into account divinities in Linear B (and even A) texts; Paiawon, how­
ever, is only mentioned in passing as an epithet of Apollo. 

18 CQ 23 (1973) 184-85. Note, however, that West considers the possibility that anapaests, 
dactyls and cretics might be explained without having recourse to the assumption of 
borrowing from some Aegean people (Glotta 51 [1973] 169). 



122 CRETAN PAIA WONES 

syllable catalectic series ending in u- -. Paroemiac and hemiepes are 
equally remote from the Cretan metres. The likelihood therefore is 
that Paiawon was an Aegean, or specifically Minoan, god, whose 
ministers, the 7TataFOv£C, used a metre of pre-Greek origin. Their song, 
the paean, early became associated with Apollo, as we see from 
Iliad!; with places other than Crete, as A£cf3wv 7Ta,~ova in Archilochos 
shows (fr.12! W.); and with activities other than healing, as in the 
exultant song at Iliad 22.391. 

The question arises, where was the identification of Paiawon and 
Apollo first made? Not, I think, in Ionia, since the identification is not 
explicit in Homer. More probably at Delphi, for if the (Delphic) 
Hymn to Apollo conveys a historical message, it is above all that there 
were once Cretan priests at Delphi. Evidence of their activity there is 
to be seen in the sending of Thaletas to cure the plague at Sparta 
KaTa n 7Tv86XP'T}CTOV.17 To them too we may trace the myth of purifi­
cation by the priest Karmanor at Tarrha in Crete18-a story clearly 
intended to rival the myth of the god's visit to Tempe after the 
killing of Python. A Cretan interest is also served by the story of 
Chrysothemis, who was the first to sing a prizewinning hymn to 
Apollo at Delphi, for he was a Cretan and the son of Karmanor.19 

Apollo's connexions with Tarrha and its neighbourhood in south­
western Crete were close. The people of Elyros near Tarrha, who sent 
a bronze goat to Delphi, declared that a goat had given milk to the 
babes Phylakides and Philandros. According to the Elyrians the 
children were born to the Cretan nymph Akakallis, with whom 
Apollo had intercourse at the house of Karmanor at Tarrha.20 Kar­
manor, it is clear, was an important figure in local Cretan lore; he was 
a priest capable of purifying a god.21 His venerable antiquity is 

17 See n.12 supra. 
18 Paus. 2.7.7 (Apollo visits Karmanor with Artemis); 2.30.3; 10.7.2; 10.16.5. 
1t Paus. 10.7.2. The connexion of the prizewinner with Crete would be secondary if the 

original form of the name was Krisothemis (Wilamowitz, Pindaros [Berlin 1922, repro 1966] 
71-72 n.4); but the conjecture is not compelling. Hypothesis C to Pind. Pyth. (p.4, 9-11 
Drachmann) states that Apollo was purified of the dragon-killing in Crete napa Xpvc08lp-'8, 
(not by Karmanor) before going to Tempe for the bay; this is evidently an attempt to 
harmonize rival versions of the purification. 

10 Paus. 10.16.5. The name Karmanor is also found at Aptera in Crete (ICr n iii 38.3). 
11 For the cult of Apollo at Tarrha see Steph.Byz. S.v. Tappa and R. F. Willetts, Cretan 

Cults and Festivals (London 1962) 270-71. A Delphic oracle of uncertain date (Oinomaos ap. 
Euseb. Praep.Bvang. 5.31 [parkefWormell, The Delphic Oracle nl (Oxford 1956) no.339]) may 
allude to the cleansing of Apollo (M. Guarducci, ICr n p.306), though Parke and Wormell 



GEORGE HUXLEY 123 

evident from his being an ancestor of the Cretan goddess Britomartis 
according to a genealogy in Pausanias (2.30.3): 

KARMAN OR 

I 
EUBOULOS 

KARME=ZEUS 

I 
BRITO MARTIS 

Diodoros gives the same line of descent from Euboulos to Britomartis 
(Diktynna) and, though he does not mention Karmanor here, 
states that Euboulos was born to Demeter.22 It is possible therefore 
that in the lore of Hellenic Crete Karmanor became the father of 
Euboulos by Demeter. Karmanor was no ordinary priest of Apollo, 
and we may reasonably conjecture that he was originally a 7T(xteXFwv, 
a minister or a manifestation of Paiawon, the Cretans' healing god. 
Indeed, he is a mythical precursor of the Cretan paiawones of the 
hymn, and of the professional healers. Thaletas, who cured Sparta of 

suggest that it is "a cure for some public disaster." The hexameters are addressed to the 
Cretans of Phaistos, Tarrha and Dion: 

41cucToiJ Kal Tappac va'Ta£, odlov T~ 7TO>.VppoV, 
llvOipov Kl>'op.cu T~M€w 41olfJo£O KaOapp.av 
rocry'oVTac, 07TWC Kp..frrrJv KaTaVa£€7&.TJ'T€ 
to>.fJov JL~ 7TaTplo£c£ vOJLO£C,t Kal Zfjva dfJOVT€C. 

Others who went to Crete after killing were: Daidalos (e.g. Diod. 4.77.1); Sopatros after the 
first slaughter of an ox at Athens (Porph. Abst. 2.29-30; see also J. Toepffer, Attische Genea­
logre [Berlin 1889, repro New York 1973] 154, and F. Jacoby on Androtion 324 F 16 with w. 
Burkert, Homo Necans [Berlin 1972] 153-61); and the murderers of Hesiod (Alkidamas in 
Cert. Hom. et Hes. pA2, 14 Wil.-but they were drowned on the way). These tales reflect the 
reputation of Crete as a place of purification: see also GRBS 10 (1969) 237 and Deubner, 
op.cit. (supra n.6) 394. A very early Cretan incantation is "The Exorcism of the Asiatics' 
Sickness in the Language of Crete" in the London Medical Papyrus, which dates from 
the 18th Egyptian dynasty (J. Friedrich, Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmiiler [Berlin 1932] 
145-46). 

22 Diod. 5.76.3 Bp£Top.apnv a~ ~v 7TPOCcryOP€vop.£V7jv LltKTVVVav JLv8oAoyoiJct y.:vlc8a£ p.~v €V 
Kawoi Tfjc KP"1-rrJc €K od£dc Kal K&'pp.TJc rilc E1;fJov>.ov TOiJ y€VV7)OlvToc €K od~P.TJTPOC. Jacoby 
(FGrHist 468 F I, Komm. n.132) suggests that Kaino lay near Knossos, but a position in the 
neighbourhood of Tarrha is pOSSible, as R. Pashley maintained (Travels in Crete II [London 
1837, repro Amsterdam 1970] 270). Pashley also suggested a connexion of Karme with the 
Cretan mountain called Carma (vel sim.) in texts of Pliny (NH 21.79 [46]). 



124 CRETAN PAIA WONES 

a plague, and Epimenides, who cleansed Athens from taint brought 
by the murder of Kylon.23 

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST 

January, 1975 

13 Arist. Ath.Pel. 1; Pluto Selen 12; Diog.Laert. 1.110; Suda S:V. '&'tp.EVl&rjc. I am obliged to 
Professor H. W. Parke for advice about Delphic problems. He writes: «For another trans­
lation of Hymn Ap. 518, which at least makes 7TCU1]OVE"C singers, see Wade-Gery, Essays in 
Greek History (Oxford 1958) 27." Wade-Gery seems to treat the olal TE" ••• olcl TE" as one class, 
because he gives the translation 

«In step behind 
The Kretans singing 'Paian' marched to Pytho 
(As Kretans aye sing 'Paian', in whose breast 
The heavenly Muse hath planted melody)." 

I agree with Parke in supposing that there are two classes-Cretans and other inspired 
persons. The Dreros sanctuary had a triad of cult statues, two female and one male, dating 
from ca 675 B. c. If they are statues of Artemis, Leto and Apollo (as M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte 
der griechischen Religion J3 [Munich 1967] 305, suggests), then they give a terminus ante quem 
for the arrival of Apollo in Crete.