As the chorus of Thebans makes mention of a παιὰν, a choral hymn to Apollo sung by the women of Thebes, homage is paid to Apollo in both domains: mythic Thebes and historic Athens. This doubling suggests that, like the choral song, the women’s hymn celebrates Apollo’s power to bring and relieve plague, speak and fulfill salubrious prophecies. As the actual chorus of men and imagined chorus of women both hymn Apollo, they merge and this merges the two landscapes; Thebes washes up into Athens to imbue the city in myth. [Gt-a] [P]