Elysium

For other uses, see Elysium (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Elysium (Greek: Template:Polytonic) was a section of the Underworld (the spelling Elysium is a Latinization of the Greek word Elysion). The Elysian fields, or sometimes Elysian plains, were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.

Etymology

Elysium is an obscure and mysterious name that evolved from a designation of a place or person struck by lightning, enelysion, enelysios. Scholars have also suggested that Greek Elysion may instead derive from the Egyptian term ialu (older iaru), meaning "reeds," with specific reference to the "Reed fields" (Egyptian: sekhet iaru / ialu), a paradisiacal land of plenty where the dead hoped to spend eternity. Biblical scholars have suggested that Elysion may derive from Elisha, who was, according to Genesis, a son of Yawan (Iouan, forefather of the Ionians) and one of the ancestors of the Greeks. Elisha may have been worshipped as a god by his earliest descendents.

In classical literature

Two Homeric passages in particular established for Greeks the nature of the Afterlife: the dreamed apparition of the dead Patroclus in the Iliad and the more daring boundary-breaking visit in Book 11 of the Odyssey. Greek traditions concerning funerary ritual were reticent, but the Homeric examples encouraged other heroic visits, in the myth cycles centered around Theseus and Heracles.

The Elysian Fields lay on the western margin of the earth, by the encircling stream of Oceanus, and there the mortal relatives of the king of the gods were transported, without tasting death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss (Odyssey 4.563). Lesser spirits were less fortunate: an eerie passage describes the twittering bat-like ghosts of Penelope's slain suitors, led by Hermes:

"down the dank

moldering paths and past the Ocean's streams they went

and past the White Rock and the Sun's Western Gates and past

the Land of Dreams, and soon they reached the fields of asphodel

where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals make their home"

(Odyssey 24.5-9, translation by Robert Fagles).

Hesiod refers to the Isles of the Blessed (makarôn nêsoi) in the Western Ocean (Works and Days). Pindar makes it a single island. Walter Burkert notes the connection with the motif of far-off Dilmun: "Thus Achilles is transported to the White Isle and becomes the Ruler of the Black Sea, and Diomedes becomes the divine lord of an Adriatic island."

In Elysium were fields of the pale liliaceous asphodel, and poplars grew. There stood the gates that led to the house of Ais (in Attic dialect "Hades").

In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas, like Heracles and Odysseus before him, travels to the underworld. Virgil describes an encounter in Elysium between Aeneas and his father Anchises. Virgil's Elysium knows perpetual spring and shady groves, with its own sun and lit by its own stars: solemque suum, sua sidera norunt (Aeneid, 6.541).

In post-classical literature

Elysium was a pagan expression that passed into the usage of the Christian patristic writers as a synonym for paradise.

Some confuse Dante's idea of the Elysian Fields with Limbo—he described Limbo as the very upper level of hell, a place of peace that the unbaptized and the non-believers who lived virtuous lives go. It is a place of happiness, but it is closed off from God and thus remains as hell.

In the Renaissance, the heroic population of the Elysian Fields tended to outshine its formerly dreary pagan reputation; the Elysian Fields borrowed some of the bright allure of paradise. In Paris, the Champs-Élysées retain their name of the Elysian Fields, first applied in the late 16th century to a formerly rural outlier beyond the formal parterre gardens behind the royal French palace of the Tuileries.

After the Renaissance, as images of Valhalla entered the popular European imagination, an even cheerier Elysium evolved for some poets. Sometimes it is imagined as a place where heroes have continued their interests from their lives. Others suppose it is a location filled with feasting, sport, song; Joy is the "daughter of Elysium" in Friedrich Schiller's ode "To Joy".

When in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night shipwrecked Viola is told "This is Illyria, lady.", "And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium." is her answer: "Elysium" for her and her first Elizabethan hearers simply means Paradise. Similarly, in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, Elysium is mentioned in Act II during Papageno's solo while he describes what it would be like if he had his dream girl: "Des Lebens als Weiser mich freun, Und wie im Elysium sein." ("Enjoy life as a wiseman, And feel like I'm in Elysium.")

The New Orleans neighborhood of the Elysian Fields in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is ironically the declassé purgatory where Blanche Dubois lives with Stanley and Stella Kowalski. New Orleans' Elysian Fields provide the second act setting of Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine.

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Elysian Undying Lands, the home of the gods, elves, and a select few others, can only be reached by crossing the western sea, much as one would have to cross the stream of Oceanus to reach the Fortunate Isles.

It is also said that Valinor, in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" is another name for the Elysian Fields.

In popular culture

• There is a UK based trance DJ and producer called Dave Elyzium.
• The kingdom of Persephone in the computer game Sacrifice (2000) is called Elysium.
• In White Wolf, Inc's Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Requiem role playing games, Elysium is the name of a fictional place (usually a mansion, museum, or similar building with a function that is usually formal) wherein the Prince (vampire leader of the city) has declared a sanctuary. Elysium is used for formal meetings, socialization, celebration, court, and to seek asylum. The tradition of Elysium forbids violence within its confines, meaning even a vampire wanted dead can seek relief from their persecution there. The plural form of Elysium is Elysia, and larger cities have been known to have several Elysia.
• In Funcom's MMORPG, Anarchy Online, Elysium is a zone of the Shadowlands, a mystical area released in their second expansion pack (also called Shadowlands). This Elysium can seem very much like a beautiful paradise, and holds a series of boss creatures based on the Greek zodiac.
• In Saint Seiya, the Elysium Fields are the stage of the last battle against the God Hades.
• In Ridley Scott's Gladiator film, Maximus advises his horseback troops before the battle against Germania at the beginning of the film that "if you find yourselves alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and you are already dead." Throughout the remainder of the film, there are several references to the"afterlife" involving images of "green fields", in reference to Elysium.Template:Spoiler-about At the end of the film, after Maximus dies, he is shown walking through a field of tall grass, most likely meant to be the Elysian Fields.Template:Endspoiler The corresponding segment of the soundtrack (track 15) is also titled "Elysium."
• The gothic band, Fields of the Nephilim, released an album titled "Elizium" in 1990 and many of their songs make reference to the Elysian fields in various guises.
• The metal band Megadeth has a song titled "Elysian Fields"
• The trip hop band Portishead has a song titled "Elysium"
• In the video game series, Megaman X, Elysium is X's dream of a place where humans and reploids co-exist.
• In the novel "Halo: The Fall of Reach" based off the Halo universe it is stated that John-117 was born in Elysium City.
• In EA's snowboarding game SSX tricky, one of the tracks is called Elysium Alps.
• In the video game Mega Man Legends 2, Elysium System is another planet and "final level" where MegaMan Trigger encounters the four Main Ruins Bosses and The final boss, Sera.
• In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, Elysium is the outer plane of pure good, the resting place of souls which were good without being highly orderly or chaotic, and the home of many good deities.
• Canadian metal band "Into Eternity" recorded a song called "Elysium Dream" on their CD "Dead or Dreaming."
• Elysian Fields is part of the 14th fairway on the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. Elysian Fields has long been said to be the flattest fairway on an otherwise undulating seaside golf course.
• Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey was a 19th Century baseball park in Hoboken, New Jersey. Elysian Fields is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game on June 19, 1846.
• David Gray references Elysium near the end of his song "The One I Love", from his 2005 album "Life In Slow Motion".
• Azam Ali has an album entitled "Elysium for the Brave".
• The band Madness recorded a song entitled "Elysium" on their 1999 album "Wonderful".
• Glasgow-based Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown has a series of happy hardcore tracks entitled "Elysium", "Elysium Plus", and "Return to Elysium".
• "Elysium City" a novel currently under production by David Landau.
• The Progressive metal band Symphony X recorded an album Odyssey with reference to Elysium.
• Alaskan metalcore band 36 Crazyfists recorded a track titled "Elysium".
• In the TV series, Angel, we see in the episode Lineage the Wesley Wyndam-Pryce accesses his vault behind the bookshelves in his office and the password to access the vault is Elysium.
• In the Sanrio animated film, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child (aka The Legend of Sirius), the strange field between the kingdoms of Fire and Water was called the Hill of Elysium
• The band Clutch has a song called "Burning Beard" featuring the lyric, "Tipping cows in fields Elysian."
• In Phantasy Star 4, Elysium is a legendary sword wielded by the main character of Phantasy Star 1 to banish Dark Force.
• The British indie-rock band Long-View has a song entitled "Elysian Fields".
• The band Vayden, local to Phoenix, AZ, has a song entitled "Elysium."
• In the Martin Amis' novel Money, a strip club is ironically named Elysium.
• Mary Chapin Carpenter has a song entitled "Elysium"
• In the movie Mister Roberts the ship's crew takes liberty at a port named Elysium.
• In the table top stratergy game Warhammer 40000, an Imperial Guard regiment specialising in rapid air to ground attacks are known as the Elysian Drop Troops.
• In the 1999 Battlezone sequel, The Red Odyssey, Elysium is an extrasolar planet(?) for who's control the two factions, the Chinese and the Black Dogs, fight over.
• In the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, in the beginning, Viola refers to Elysium when she's fretting that her brother, Sebastian, is dead.
• Ultrabeat also released a Dance Track song called Elysium (feat Scott Brown)
• 70's rock band Baker Gurvitz Army's second album was Elysian Encounter.
• A Progressive Metal band from Coventry in the UK are called Elysium.
• In The Phantom of the Opera the managers say that with the phantom gone it is a time of "Elysian peace"
• There is a band of Funeral Doom/Black Metal music in Australia named Elysian Blaze
• In Micheal Bond's book 'The Tales of Olga da Polga' the hedgehog character of Fangio refers to his 'Elysian Fields', in this case a rubbish tip and hedgehog land of plenty.
• The swedish role-playing game Mutant features an enclave named Elysium IV. It remains to be seen how paradisical life there is.
• In Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionistic play The Adding Machine, the characters Zero, Shrdlu, and Daisy all meet in the Elysian Fields (Scene Six). Zero is so unaccustomed to the freedom and happiness offered here that he flees this paradise.
• In the anime Sailor Moon, Elysian is the kingdom where Prince Endymion is from.
• In "Ode To Joy" joy is the "beautiful spark of the gods, daughter of Elysium."
• The television series Star Trek: Deep Space 9 featured a character named Melora, in the episode of the same name, who was an Elaysian.
• The japanese version of pokemon pearl and diamond features a place called the Garden Elysium that is home to the legendary pokemon sheimy.

In science

• Elysium is the name given to a volcanic region of Mars and one of its volcanoes.
• Elysian is the name of an inter departmental multi-art form competition held at an Engineering College, Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), in Pune, Maharashtra, India.

References

• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985.
• Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1948.
• Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth, 1994.

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