Scholars commonly believe that the Paian was not a competitive genre. I argue that this view derives not from the ancient Greeks but from a modern, mostly protestant, religious sensibility. Its dominance as detrimental: (i) because it hinders an accurate grasp of the ways in which generic distinctions functioned in archaic Greece; (ii) because it clouds the history of the Pythian festival and obscures the character of its mousikoi agônes; and (iii) because it stymies insight into the relationship the paian bears to the citharoedic nomos.