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paeans


To Apollo

“For when you addressed the God at Delphi, as those who were then enquiring of the oracle reported, you flattered him by using this very word ( Hail ), and, as I am told, you have written:

Hail, and preserve in happiness the life of a despot.

CURFRAG.tlg-0247.2
Plato Letter to Dionysius:

To Asclepius

“[on Democles the flatterer of Dionysius]: ... He said that the difference between him and his fellow-ambassadors arose because after supper his colleagues got some of the crew to join them in singing some of the Paeans of Phrynichus and Stesichorus and even of Pindar, whereas he, with the aid of any of the guests who chose, went through the Paeans composed by Dionysius himself. And he undertook to prove his statement. While his accusers, he declared, could remember not even the number of those songs, he himself was ready to sing them all from beginning to end. This calmed Dionysius, and Democles went on: ‘You would do me a favour, Dionysius, if you were to ask one of the professional musicians1 to teach me the Paean you have composed to Asclepius; for this, I understand, is what you have been engaged upon.’” Timaeus in Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

1 or someone who knows it

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