Editing Elysium (section)

==Post-classical literature==
Elysium as a pagan expression for paradise would eventually pass into usage by early [[Patristic|Christian]] writers.

In [[Dante]]'s epic ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'', Elysium is mentioned as the abode of the blessed in the lower world; mentioned in connection with the meeting of Aeneas with the shade of Anchises in the Elysian Fields.<ref name=Toynbee>{{cite book|last=Toynbee|first=Paget|title=A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante|year=1968|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/dante/DispToynbeeByTitOrId.pl?INP_ID=215059|access-date=2011-06-26|archive-date=2019-12-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210073653/http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/dante/DispToynbeeByTitOrId.pl?INP_ID=215059|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|With such affection did Anchises' shade reach out, if our greatest muse is owed belief, when in Elysium he knew his son.|2=Dante, ''Divina Commedia'' (Par Canto XV Line 25–27)<ref>{{cite web|last=Hollander|first=Robert|title=The Divine Comedy|url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/dante/campuscgi/mpb/GetCantoSection.pl?LANG=2&INP_POEM=Par&INP_SECT=15&INP_START=20&INP_LEN=15|publisher=Princeton Dante Project|access-date=26 June 2011}}</ref>}}

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 [[France|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]]". The poet [[Heinrich Heine]] explicitly parodied Schiller's sentiment in referring to the [[Shabbat|Jewish Sabbath]] food [[cholent]] as the "daughter of Elysium" in his poem "Princess Shabbat".<ref>{{cite web|last=Friedlander|first=Joseph|title=Princess Sabbath|url=http://www.bartleby.com/98/237.html|work=The Standard Book of Jewish Verse|access-date=3 January 2016}}</ref> <!--(''Examples of this other picture of Elysium are needed here, if available'')-->

Christian and classical attitudes to the afterlife are contrasted by [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' saying, "This word 'damnation' terrifies not me, For I confound hell in elysium."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUqluJnAlsAC&pg=PA38|title=The Heart of His Mystery: Shakespeare and the Catholic Faith in England Under Elizabeth and James|first1=Waterfield John|last1=Waterfield|first2=John|last2=Waterfield|date=1 December 2016|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9781440143434|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' when Viola says "My brother he is in Elysium", she and Elizabethan audiences understood this as [[Paradise]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Hylton|first=Jeremy|title=Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 2|url=http://shakespeare.mit.edu/twelfth_night/twelfth_night.1.2.html|work=The Complete Works of William Shakespeare|publisher=MIT|access-date=26 June 2011}}</ref> In [[Mozart]]'s ''[[The Magic Flute]]'' Papageno compares being in Elysium to winning his ideal woman: "Des Lebens als Weiser mich freun, Und wie im Elysium sein." ("Enjoy life as a wiseman, And feel like I'm in Elysium.")

[[Miguel de Cervantes]]' ''[[Don Quixote]]'' describes [[Dulcinea del Toboso]] as "beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields".

In [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford's]] 1633 tragedy ''[['Tis Pity She's a Whore]]'' Giovanni seals his requited love for his sister Annabella, stating "And I'de not change it for the best to come: A life of pleasure in Elyzium".<ref>{{cite book|last=Ford|first=John|title='Tis Pity She's a Whore and The Broken Heart|year=1915|publisher=D.C. Heath & Co|location=Boston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tispityshesawho01fordgoog/page/n166 105]|url=https://archive.org/details/tispityshesawho01fordgoog}}</ref>