Elysium

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In Greek mythology, Elysium (Greek: Ἠλύσια πεδία) was a section of the Underworld (the spelling Elysium is a Latinization of the Greek word Elysion). The Elysian Fields, or the Elysian Plains, were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

Elysium is an obscure name that evolved from a designation of a place or person struck by lightning, enelysion, enelysios.[1] This could be a reference to Zeus, the god of lightning, so "lightning-struck" could be saying that the person was blessed (struck) by Zeus (lightning). Scholars[who?] have also suggested that Greek Elysion may have instead been derived from the Egyptian term ialu (older iaru), meaning "reeds," with specific reference to the "Reed fields" (Egyptian: sekhet iaru / ialu), a paradisaical land of plenty where the dead hoped to spend eternity.

[edit] Ruler

The ruler of Elysium varies from author to author; Pindar names the ruler as Kronos, released from Tartarus and ruling in a palace:

And those that have three times kept to their oaths,

Keeping their souls clean and pure,

Never letting their hearts be defiled by the taint

Of evil and injustice,

And barbaric venality,

They are led by Zeus to the end:

To the palace of Kronos

Other authors claim that Kronos remained in Tartarus for all eternity, and the judge was another, sometimes Rhadamanthys.

[edit] 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.[2][3]

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 not quite as fortunate: an eerie passage describes the twittering bat-like ghosts of Penelope's slain suitors, led by Hermes:

down the dank

mouldering 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). Walter Burkert notes the connection with the motif of far-off Dilmun: "Thus Achilles is transported to the White Isle, which may refer to Mount Teide on Tenerife, whose volcano is often snowcapped and as the island was sometimes called the white isle by explorers, and becomes the Ruler of the Black Sea, and Diomedes becomes the divine lord of an Adriatic island."[1]

Pindar makes it a single island:

And those that have three times kept to their oaths,

Keeping their souls clean and pure,

Never letting their hearts be defiled by the taint

Of evil and injustice,

And barbaric veniality,

They are led by Zeus to the end:

To the palace of Kronos,

Where soothing breezes off the Ocean

Breathe over the Isle of the Blessed:

All around flowers are blazing with a

Dazzling light:

Some springing from the shining trees,

Others nourished by the water from the sea:

With circlets and garlands of flowers they

Crown their hands,

Ruled by the steadfast councils of

Rhadamanthys:

Rhadamanthys,

The great Judge,

Whom the Father,

The husband of Rhea,

Whose throne is higher than all:

The great Father keeps him by his side,

His loyal advisor.

Peleus and Kadmos both are there,

And Akhilleus, brought there by his mother,

After she had conquered the heart of Zeus with her

Prayers

In Elysium where 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).

[edit] Post-classical literature

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

In Dante's epic The Divine Comedy, Limbo is purposefully described to much resemble the Elysian Fields. This is due in large part to Limbo's being described as the resting place of, among others, virtuous pagans who lived before the time of Christ. Being the first and uppermost layer of Hell, Limbo is closed off from God; the mood is one of sadness, since heaven is close yet unattainable.

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, 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 Elysian Fields in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is the declassé purgatory where Blanche Dubois lives with Stanley and Stella Kowalski. New Orleans' Elysian Fields provides 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.

In his poem Middlesex, John Betjeman describes how the heroine Elaine hurries "... Out into the outskirt's edges, Where a few surviving hedges Keep alive our lost Elysium - rural Middlesex again". The poem, considered by many to be one of his best, harks back to a time when the suburbs of modern London (Perivale and Harrow-on-the-Hill, for example) were fields and meadows, with all the pastoral imagery that they convey.

In Spring and All, William Carlos Williams describes a dying woman's "elysian slobber/upon/the folded handkerchief".

In his poem An Old Haunt, Hugh McFadden sets an Elysian scene in Dublin's St. Stephen's Green park.[4]

Very slowly solitude slips round me

in St. Stephen's Green. I rest:

see pale salmon clouds blossom.

I'm back in the fields of Elysium.

In David Gemmell's Parmennion series (Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince) and his Troy trilogy, his characters refer to Elysium as the "Hall of Heroes," a Valhalla-like connotation.

In Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man", Sassoon writes "The air was Elysian with early summer". It's use in this context could be prolepsis, as the British countryside he is describing would become the burial ground of his dead comrades and heroes from World War I.

[edit] Modern Place Names

The Champs-Élysées, the most prestigious avenue in Paris and one of the most famous streets in the world, is French for "Elysian Fields." The nearby Élysée Palace houses the President of the French Republic, for which reason "l'Élysée" frequently appears as a metonym for the French presidency.

In Los Angeles, California, "Elysian Park" is the name of a 600-acre (2.4 km2) public open space area -- the second largest park in Los Angeles -- established in 1781, the year of the city's founding. It retains much of the idyllic natural chaparral and coastal sage scrub present in the area since prehistoric times, in addition to hiking trails, picnic areas, barbecue pits, a small man-made lake, a children's play area, and baseball diamonds referred to as, "The Elysian Fields".

In Mexico City, Campos Eliseos (Spanish: Elysian Fields) is a street in the Polanco neighborhood where several of the city's best hotels and restaurants are located.

Elysian Fields is a street in Lakefront, a suburb of New Orleans, where the University of New Orleans, and Ben Franklin High School are located.

[edit] Science

  • Elysium is the name given to a volcanic region of Mars and one of its volcanoes.
  • Elysia is a genus of sea slugs.
  • 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.

[edit] Classical music

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,

was die Mode streng geteilt:

alle Menschen werden Brüder,

wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Approximate English Translation:

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,

Daughter of Elysium,

Touched with fire, to the portal,

Of thy radiant shrine, we come.

Your sweet magic frees all others,

Held in Custom's rigid rings.

All men on earth become brothers,

In the haven of your wings.

  • Elysium is also referenced in Mozart's well known Opera "Die Zauberflöte" (The Magic Flute). It is in Act II when Papageno is feeling very melancholy because he doesn't have a sweetheart or wife and he is drunk singing the song that could be called "Den Mädchen" (The Girls). The lyrics in German for the verse referring to Elysium are:

Dann schmeckte mir Trinken und Essen;

Dann könnte' ich

Mit Fürsten mich messen,

Des Lebens als Weiser mich freun,

Und wie im Elysium sein.

In English:

Then drink and food would taste good to me;

Then I could

Measure myself with princes,

Enjoy life as a wiseman,

And feel like I'm in Elysium.

  • Elysium is the name of a female vocal ensemble for medieval music. Elysium Most well-known for their cross-over CD "Auvergne Chants" Decca 2000

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] Contemporary music

  • A song by the British Hip-Hop group Rhyme Asylum titled 'Iller Instinct' contains the lyric

"I hope this beat's flame resistant, when I come off the top I've lost the plot like books with pages missing. I won't break tradition, I'm keeping it real, plant seeds of destruction in the Elysium fields."

  • "Elysian Fields" is the title of a song by the metal band Megadeth from the their album Youthanasia. It is about souls sentenced to eternal damnation fighting to storm heaven.
  • "Elysian Fields" is a song by Irish Post-Rock band God Is An Astronaut from the album A Moment Of Stillness. This song is an Instrumental
  • "Elysian Fields" is a New York City-based rock band formed in 1995.
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter's album 'Between Here and Gone' contains the song 'Elysium', where, following a long personal journey, paradise is found in the heart of her soulmate.
  • Elizium is the title of an album by Fields of the Nephilim. The album contains track-titles such as '(Paradise Regained)' and lyrics including "over to the window, where the night has become Elizium for the sleepless souls" and references to "some kind of Heaven" (from 'At the Gates of Silent Memory'); whilst an overall theme of voyages towards a blissful afterlife/otherworld dominates the entire album.
  • Elysium is the title of a dance and happy hardcore music track by Scott Brown (DJ). The chorus line lyrics have potential links to interpersonal, spiritual, and higher-order concepts or ideologies.
  • The track, Elysium, by Scott Brown has remixed by Trance/House group Ultrabeat with additional lyrics and the BPM reduced. That version has then been remixed back into happy hardcore by Scott Brown.
  • Elysium is a song by the Band LostAlone.
  • "Devoured Elysium" is a song by Vital Remains from their album Dechristianize, released in 2003.
  • Portishead has a song entitled Elysium on their 1997 self-titled album.
  • Wings Of Severance has a song called Elysium on their self-titled album.
  • The Velvet Teen's second full-length album was entitled Elysium.
  • In the movie Gladiator, "Elysium" is the name of the song played during Maximus's death. The film shows the character walking through fields of crops. It is ambiguous whether this is supposed to be Elysium or his family farm, it is likely that it represents both.
  • The video to the song "It Means Nothing" by the Stereophonics shows the spirits of the dead in white robes walking through fields of crops to be taken away in hot air balloons
  • David Gray's song The One I Love has the lyrics "Don’t see Elysium, Don’t see no fiery Hell"
  • Hardcore band named Elysia from Sacramento, CA
  • A song titled "Elysium" appears on the album Wonderful by British 90's band Madness
  • A song titled "Elysium" appears on Phoenix, Az rock band Vayden's album - "Children of Our Mistakes"
  • A death-metal Band from Germany called "Elysium"[5]
  • A punk-metal band from Tampa, FL is called Elysium[6]
  • A rock band from Newton, IA is called Elysium.
  • The line "As the sands slowly turn to Elysian Fields" is featured in the song "Sahara" by Finnish metal band Nightwish
  • The line "and cross the river of styx, you will reach elysian fields" is featured in the song "Into the light" by the Hardcore metal band John Doe.
  • The Alaskan metal/post-hardcore band 36 Crazyfists has a song entitled "Elysium" featuring Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones on their 'Rest Inside the Flames' album.
  • The phrase "Why is it called Elysian Fields when love builds only grief" is featured in the song "The Seer", by Finnish soprano Tarja Turunen, in the album My Winter Storm.
  • Norwegian black metal band Behemoth mentions an Elysium in their song "Conquer All" in the line "Mightiest self! Cast out ov thy Elysium with blood ov nazarene."
  • Swedish pop singer and former A*Teens band member Amit Paul has a song entitled "My Elysium" on his debut solo album "Songs in a Key of Mine."
  • UK Hardcore DJ Scott Brown has a song entitled "Elysium+", found on many Hardcore compilations.
  • Canadian Progressive Death Metal band Into Eternity have a song titled "Elysium Dream" on their 2002 album Dead or Dreaming.
  • A metalcore band called Elysion Fields is from Antioch, Illinois(myspace.com/elysionfieldsband)
  • Swedish melodic death metal Arch Enemy's song "Dead Bury Their Dead" off of the first CD of Wages of Sin, contains the line ... "..I walk through Elysian Fields... the light is shining.. on me!"
  • A sideband of Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart called "the Lovemongers" recorded a song called "Elysian"
  • Charlotte Church's song "Dream a Dream" from her album of the same name contains the line "We will see... Elysium".
  • A progressive power metal band Into Eternity's song titled "Elysium Dream".
  • A song by singer/songwriter, Davis Howley, entitled "Our Elysium".

[edit] Television

  • In Doctor Who, Davros, creator of the Daleks, was said to have been lost at the Gates of Elysium during the first year of the Time War, when his command ship was swallowed by the Nightmare Child.
  • In the fourth season of the anime Sailor Moon, the guardian of dreams, Helios, resides in Elysion. In the manga version of that plotline, Elysion is equally important to the arc.
  • In the third and fifth seasons of the anime Digimon, Dukemon has an attack called "Final Elysium", where he fires a red beam from his Shield.
  • In the Hades arc of both the anime and manga of Saint Seiya, the bronze saints infiltrate Elysion to rescue Athena from Hades.
  • In the fifth season episode "Lineage" of the television show "Angel" Wesley Wyndam-Pryce uses the word Elysium as a password to enter his high secure vaults within his office.
  • In the final episode of the British sitcom Green Wing, Martin hears that Mac will be going to "Elyssian Fields", which he thinks is a place in Dorset. He later learns that it actually means that he is going to die.
  • In the anime series Spawn (season 3, episode 2), the Elysium Fields were mentioned by the bounty hunter Jade, asking Spawn to kill her so she would die in battle and have peace in the Fields instead of going to Hell for sparing HellSpawn.
  • In the fourth season of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, it is shown that the Fields of Elysium are part of the Colonial religion's teachings about the afterlife. Colonial religion is heavily influenced by real-world Greek mythology.
  • In Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys the main characters visited Elysian fields several times.

[edit] Films

  • In Gladiator (2000 film) Maximus: "Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!"[7]
  • Phantom of the Opera (2004 film), In the opening scene of "The Masqurade" Andre sings the line "Of Elysian Peace." in reference to the Phantoms 6 month absence.
  • In Mister Roberts (1955 film), the ship The USS Reluctant, was sent to the "Limbo Islands", specifically to Elysium Island for liberty. The capitol of the island is "Elysium City". Elysium is the largest of the Limbo Islands. It's often referred to as the Polynesian paradise. Vanilla, sugar, cocoa, coffee, phosphates and rum are the chief exports. [8]

[edit] Games

  • In Anarchy Online, part of the Shadowlands dimension, introduced with the Shadowlands expansion pack, is known as Elysium.
  • In earlier editions of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, Elysium is the outer (spiritual) plane of absolute and purist good alignment - also referred to as Neutral Good - without any partisan regard towards law (as with the Seven Heavens) or chaos (as with Olympus/Arvandor/Arborea).
  • In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Elysia is a stormy planet in Galactic Federation space. Its only known settlement is Skytown, a flying mechanical observatory that was built by the Chozo.
  • In RuneScape, the powerful and rare Elysian spirit shield is probably a reference to the Elysium.
  • In God of War, the term Elysian Fields is used repeatedly and is even visited by Kratos when he goes to fight for the gods.
  • In the Halo universe the Master Chief, also known as Spartan-117 or John, is born and raised to the age of six in Elysium City on an outer colony world belonging to the UNSC.
  • In Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, a medical ward for PGS patients is called Elysium.
  • In the tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40k, the Elysians are referred to as Imperial Guardsmen specializing in a futuristic form of paratrooping using drop chutes. Forge World produces miniatures representing the Elysian Drop Troops.
  • In the Mass Effect game and novels, Elysium is a human colony where Jon Grissom, the Alliance's posterboy and first human to travel through a Mass Relay, calls home. It is also the home of the Ascension Project.
  • In Vampire the Masquerade (the RPG pen-and-paper game, the video game Bloodlines, and the board game Vampire: prince of the city), an Elysium is a place designated as neutral territory for vampires (i.e. a theater, nightclub, gallery etc.), where violence is forbidden. The keeper of the Elysium holds jurisdiction, preventing violence, organizing or cancelling events etc.
  • In the Game Rise of the Argonauts in a re-telling of the Classic "Jason and the Golden Fleece" in RPG form, Elysium is where the virtuous are sent and Jason must obtain the fleece to bring his Wife back from the Dead.
  • In the Last Remnant four dead souls of the Qsiti are trapped by a Monster and mentions Elysium " That monster has kept us here for many years now we can finally move on to Elysium, thanks to you Rush"
  • In Mega Man Legends 2, Elysium (Heaven in the Japanese Version) is a smaller planet at the orbit of Terra, where the last human, known as The Master, lived for 300 years.
  • The expansion Titan Quest: Immortal Throne takes place in the Greek underworld, with one significant section taking place in Elysium itself. The player must defend Elysium from the enemy daemon army and is aided by several well known Greek heroes.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985. p. 198.
  2. ^ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1948.[page needed]
  3. ^ Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth, 1994.[page needed]
  4. ^ Hugh McFadden, Cities of Mirrors (Beaver Row Press, Dublin), 1984.[page needed]
  5. ^ Elysium official web page
  6. ^ Elysium Band
  7. ^ "Gladiator Script". Script-o-rama.com. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/g/gladiator-script-transcript-russell-crowe.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-04. 
  8. ^ "Mister Roberts Script - Dialogue Transcript". http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mister-roberts-script-transcript-lemmon.html. Retrieved on 18 March 2009. 

[edit] References

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