Editing Elysium (section)

==Classical literature==
[[File:Base of a ancient greek vase - NAMA 4502.JPG|thumb|Ancient Greek funerary vase (5th century BC). On the face a young woman and a young man pick fruit from a tree. This depicts the afterlife in the Elysian Fields, where the blessed dead enjoyed golden fruits.]]
In Homer's ''Odyssey'', Elysium is described as a paradise:
{{Blockquote|to the Elysian plain...where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men.|2=Homer, ''Odyssey'' (4.560–565)<ref name=Murray/>|source=}}

The Greek poet Hesiod refers to the "Isles of the Blest" in his [[didactic]] poem ''[[Works and Days]]''. In his book ''Greek Religion'', Walter Burkert notes the connection with the motif of far-off [[Dilmun]]: "Thus Achilles is transported to the [[Snake Island (Black Sea)|White Isle]] and becomes the Ruler of the [[Black Sea]], and [[Diomedes]] becomes the divine lord of an [[Adriatic]] island".<ref name=Burkert/>

{{Blockquote|And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep-swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them|2=Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' (170)<ref name=Evelyn-White/>}}

Writing in the 5th century BCE, Pindar's ''Odes'' describes the reward waiting for those living a righteous life:
{{Blockquote|The good receive a life free from toil, not scraping with the strength of their arms the earth, nor the water of the sea, for the sake of a poor sustenance. But in the presence of the honored gods, those who gladly kept their oaths enjoy a life without tears, while the others undergo a toil that is unbearable to look at. Those who have persevered three times, on either side, to keep their souls free from all wrongdoing, follow Zeus' road to the end, to the tower of Cronus, where ocean breezes blow around the island of the blessed, and flowers of gold are blazing, some from splendid trees on land, while water nurtures others. With these wreaths and garlands of flowers they entwine their hands according to the righteous counsels of Rhadamanthys, whom the great father, the husband of Rhea whose throne is above all others, keeps close beside him as his partner|2=Pindar, ''Odes'' (2.59–75)<ref>{{cite book |last=Svarlien |first=Diane |title=Odes |year=1990 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=O.:poem=2}}</ref>}}

In [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', [[Aeneas]], like [[Heracles]] and [[Odysseus]] before him, travels to the underworld. Virgil describes those who will travel to Elysium, and those who will travel to [[Tartarus]]:

{{Blockquote|Night speeds by, And we, Aeneas, lose it in lamenting. Here comes the place where cleaves our way in twain. Thy road, the right, toward Pluto's dwelling goes, And leads us to Elysium. But the left Speeds sinful souls to doom, and is their path To Tartarus th' accurst.|2=Virgil, ''Aeneid'' (6.539)<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Theodore C. |year=1910 |publisher=The Perseus Digital Library |title=Verg. A. 6.539 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D6%3Acard%3D535}}</ref>}}

Virgil goes on to describe 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''.

{{Blockquote|In no fix'd place the happy souls reside. In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds, By crystal streams, that murmur thro' the meads: But pass yon easy hill, and thence descend; The path conducts you to your journey's end." This said, he led them up the mountain's brow, And shews them all the shining fields below. They wind the hill, and thro' the blissful meadows go. |2=Virgil, ''Aeneid'' (6.641)<ref>{{cite book |last=Dryden |first=John |title=Verg. A. 6.641 |publisher=The Perseus Digital Library Project |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Verg.+A.+6.641&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052}}</ref>}}

In the Greek historian [[Plutarch]]'s ''Life of Sertorius'', Elysium is described as:
{{Blockquote|These are two in number, separated by a very narrow strait; they are ten thousand [[furlong]]s distant from Africa, and are called the Islands of the Blest. They enjoy moderate rains at long intervals, and winds which for the most part are soft and precipitate dews, so that the islands not only have a rich soil which is excellent for plowing and planting, but also produce a natural fruit that is plentiful and wholesome enough to feed, without toil or trouble, a leisured folk. Moreover, an air that is salubrious, owing to the climate and the moderate changes in the seasons, prevails on the islands. For the north and east winds which blow out from our part of the world plunge into fathomless space, and, owing to the distance, dissipate themselves and lose their power before they reach the islands; while the south and west winds that envelope the islands sometimes bring in their train soft and intermittent showers, but for the most part cool them with moist breezes and gently nourish the soil. Therefore a firm belief has made its way, even to the Barbarians, that here is the Elysian Field and the abode of the blessed, of which Homer sang. |2=Plutarch, ''Life of Sertorius, VIII, 2''<ref>{{cite book |last=Perrin |first=Bernadotte |title=Plutarch's Lives |year=1919 |via=Perseus Digital Library Project |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+Sert.+8&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0062 |access-date=25 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Bill |title=The Life of Sertorius |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sertorius*.html |work=The Parallel Lives Plutarch |publisher=The Loeb Classical Library |access-date=19 June 2011}}</ref>}}
Diodorus, in his first book, suggested that the Elysian fields which were much celebrated in ancient Greek poetry, corresponded to the beautiful plains in the neighborhood of Memphis which contained the tombs of that capital city of Egypt.<ref>Seymer, John Gunning. (1835) [https://archive.org/details/romanceanciente00unkngoog/page/n88 <!-- pg=72 quote=elysian fields memphis egypt. --> The Romance of Ancient Egypt: Second Series]. p 72.</ref><ref>Priestley, Joseph. [https://archive.org/stream/matterandspirit01prieuoft#page/208/mode/2up Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit]. p. 209</ref> He further intimated that the Greek prophet Orpheus composed his fables about the afterlife when he traveled to Egypt and saw the customs of the Egyptians regarding the rites of the dead.<ref>Toland, John. [https://archive.org/stream/letterstoserena00tolagoog#page/n91/mode/2up Letters to Serena], History of the Immortality of the Soul. pp. 46–52</ref>