PADUCAH  , a

city and the county-seat of McCracken county, Kentucky, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Tennessee river with the Ohio, about 12 M. below the mouth of the Cumberland, and about 50 M . E. by N. of Cairo, Illinois . Pop . (1890), '12,799; (1900), 19,446, of whom 5814 were negroes and 516 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 22,760 . It is served by three branches of the Illinois Central railroad by a branch of the Nashville Chattanooga & St Louis railway (of which it is the terminus), and by steamboat lines to Pittsburg, Louisville, St Louis, New Orleans, Nashville, Chattanooga, and other river ports . Paducah is in a rich agricultural region, and its wholesale trade is probably greater than that of any other city of the state except Louisville . Its trade is largely in groceries, whisky, tobacco, hardware, grain and live stock, vegetables and lumber . It is a large loose-leaf tobacco market, and is a headquarters for tow boats carrying coal down the Mississippi . The Illinois Central and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railways have repair shops here; and there are numerous manufactures, the value of the factory products increasing from $2,976,931 111 1900 to $4,443,223 in 1905, or 49.3% . Paducah (said to have been named in honour of an Indian chief who lived in the vicinity and of whom there is a statue in the city) was settled in 1821, was laid out in 1827, was incorporated as a town in 183o, and was chartered as a city in 1856 . The city was occupied by General U . S .

Grant the 5th of September 1861; on the 25th of March 1864 it was entered by a Confederate force under General Nathan B . Forrest, who, however, was unable to capture the fortifications and immediately withdrew . - PAEAN (Gr . Hatay, epic Ration)), in Homer (a v . 401, 899), the physician of the gods . In other writers the word is a mere epithet of Apollo (q.v.) in his capacity as a god of healing (cf. larpb,aavres oaten), but it is not known whether Paean was originally a separate deity or merely an aspect of Apollo . Homer leaves the question unanswered; Hesiod (cf. schol . Horn . Od. iv . 432) definitely separates the two, and in later poetry Paean is invoked independently as a health god . It is equally difficult to discover the relation between Paean or Paeon in the sense of " healer " and Paean in the sense of " song." Farnell refers to the ancient association between the healing craft and the singing of spells, and says that it is impossible to decide which is the original sense . At all events the meaning of "healer" gradually gave place to that of " hymn, from the phrase 'Ill Hatay .

Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo (cf. the Homeric Hymn to Apollo 272, and notes in ed. by Sikes and

Allen), a.nd afterwards to other gods, Dionysus, Helios, Asclepius . About the 4th century the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered . Its connexion with Apollo as the slayer of the python led to its association with battle and victory; hence it became the custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won . The most famous paeans are those of Bacchylides (q.v.) and Pindar (q.v.) . Paeans were sung at the festivals of Apollo (especially the Hyacinthia), at banquets, and later even at public funerals . In later times they were addressed not only to the gods, but to human beings . In this manner the Rhodians celebrated Ptolemy I. of Egypt, the Samians Lysander of Sparta, the Athenians Demetrius, the Delphians Craterus of Macedon . The word " paean " is now used in the sense of any song of joy or triumph . See A . Fairbanks, A Study of the Greek Paean," No. xii. of Cornell Studies in Classical Philology (New York, 1900) ; L . R . Farnell, Cults of the Greek States .