Editing Elysium

{{Short description|Afterlife in Greek mythology}}
{{About|the place in Greek mythology|other uses|Elysium (disambiguation)|and|Elysian (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Elysion|the minivan produced by Honda|Honda Elysion|the Greek gothic-metal band|Elysion (band)|the American deathcore band|Elysia (band)}}
{{Greek underworld}}
[[File:Goethe Elysium crop.jpg|thumb|''[[Goethe]]'s Ankunft im Elysia'' by [[Franz Nadorp]]]]
'''Elysium''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|ˈ|l|ɪ|z|i|.|ə|m|,_|ɪ|ˈ|l|ɪ|ʒ|ə|m|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Elysium.wav}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/longman-pronunciation-dictionary/page/257/mode/2up |first=John C. |last= Wells |publisher=Longman |location=Harlow, England |year=2000 |orig-date=1990 |edition=new |isbn=978-0-582-36467-7 |page=257}}</ref>), otherwise known as the '''Elysian Fields''' ({{langx|grc|Ἠλύσιον πεδίον}}, ''Ēlýsion pedíon''), '''Elysian Plains''' or '''Elysian Realm''', is a conception of the [[afterlife]] that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. It was initially separated from the [[Greek underworld]] – the realm of [[Hades]]. Only mortals related to the gods and other heroes could be admitted past the river [[Styx]]. Later, the conception of who could enter was expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic. They would remain at the Elysian Fields after death, to live a blessed and happy afterlife, and indulge in whatever they had enjoyed in life.<ref name=Peck>{{cite book|last=Peck|first=Harry Thurston|title=Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, Volume 1|year=1897|publisher=Harper|location=New York|pages=588, 589|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RacKAAAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref name=Sacks>{{cite book|last=Sacks|first=David|title=A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press US|isbn=0-19-511206-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofanci00sack/page/8 8, 9]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofanci00sack/page/8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Zaidman|first=Louise Bruit|title=Religion in the Ancient Greek City|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=United Kingdom|isbn=0-521-42357-0|page=78}}</ref><ref name=Clare>{{cite book|last=Clare|first=Israel Smith|title=Library of Universal History, Volume 2: Ancient Oriental Nations and Greece|year=1897|publisher=R. S. Peale, J. A. Hill|location=New York}}</ref><ref name=Petrisko>{{cite book|last=Petrisko|first=Thomas W.|title=Inside Heaven and Hell: What History, Theology and the Mystics Tell Us About the Afterlife|year=2000|publisher=St. Andrews Productions|location=McKees Rocks, PA|isbn=1-891903-23-3|pages=12–14}}</ref><ref name=Ogden>{{cite book|last=Ogden|first=Daniel|title=A Companion to Greek Religion|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontogreek00ogde_467|url-access=limited|year=2007|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Singapore|isbn=978-1-4051-2054-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/companiontogreek00ogde_467/page/n114 92], 93}}</ref>

The Elysian Fields were, according to [[Homer]], located on the western edge of the Earth by the stream of [[Oceanus]].<ref name=Peck/> In the time of the Greek poet [[Hesiod]], Elysium would also be known as the "[[Fortunate Isles]]", or the "Isles (or Islands) of the Blessed", located in the western ocean at the end of the earth.<ref name=Peck/><ref name=Westmoreland>{{cite book|last=Westmoreland|first=Perry L.|title=Ancient Greek Beliefs|year=2007|publisher=Lee And Vance Publishing Co|isbn=978-0-9793248-1-9|page=70}}</ref><ref name=Rengel>{{cite book|last=Rengel|first=Marian|title=Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-60413-412-4|page=50}}</ref> The Isles of the Blessed would be reduced to a single island by the [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] poet [[Pindar]], describing it as having shady parks, with residents indulging in athletic and musical pastimes.<ref name=Peck/><ref name=Sacks/>

The ruler of Elysium varies from author to author: Pindar and Hesiod name [[Cronus]] as the ruler,<ref name=Evelyn-White>{{cite book|last=Evelyn-White|first=Hugh G.|title=The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation|year=1914|publisher=William Heinemann Ltd|location=London|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132:card=140}}</ref> while the poet [[Homer]] in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' describes fair-haired [[Rhadamanthus]] dwelling there.<ref name=Ogden/><ref name=Westmoreland/><ref name=Burkert>{{cite book|last=Burkert|first=Walter|title=Greek Religion|year=1985|publisher=Blackwell|location=United Kingdom|isbn=0-631-15624-0|page=198}}</ref><ref name=Murray>{{cite book|last=Murray|first=A.T.|title=Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation|year=1919|via=Perseus Digital Library Project|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+24.10&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136}}</ref> "The Isle of the Blessed" is also featured in the 2nd-century comedic novel ''[[A True Story]]'' by [[Lucian|Lucian of Samosata]].

==Etymology==
The word ''Elysium'' derives via [[Latin]] from the [[Ancient Greek]] ''Ēlysion (pedion)'' "Elysian (field)", ultimately of unknown origin.<ref>{{OEtymD|Elysium}}</ref> [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]]<ref>''Commentarii ad Homerii Odisseam'', [https://archive.org/stream/commentariiadhom01eust#page/182/mode/2up IV, v. 563].</ref> [[Folk etymology|associated]] the word ''Elysion'' ({{lang|grc|Ἠλύσιον}}) with {{lang|grc|ἀλυουσας}} ''alyousas'' (itself from the verb {{lang|grc|ἀλύω}} ''alyō'', "to be deeply stirred from joy")<ref>Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. ''A Greek-English Lexicon''. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*a%3Aentry+group%3D96%3Aentry%3Da%29lu%2Fw sub voce].</ref> or from {{lang|grc|ἀλύτως}} ''alytōs'', synonymous of {{lang|grc|ἀφθάρτως}} ({{lang|grc|ἄφθαρτος}}, "incorruptible"),<ref>''A Greek-English Lexicon'' ec. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*a%3Aentry+group%3D366%3Aentry%3Da%29%2Ffqartos s. v.]</ref> referring to souls' life in this place. Another suggestion is from the stem {{lang|grc|ελυθ-}} ''elyth-'', itself from {{lang|grc|ἔρχομαι}} ("to come").<ref>''Storia vera. Dialoghi dei morti'', [[Lucian]], [[Oscar Mondadori]], Milano, 1991 (2010), p. 79.</ref>

==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>

==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>

==Modern influence==
[[File:Cabinet de cire, Musée de la Révolution française.jpg|thumb|Wax cabinet with the three fathers of the French Revolution, [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]], [[Voltaire]] and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], installed at Elysium, 1792, ([[Musée de la Révolution française]])]]
[[File:Schwabe Carlos Elysian Fields.jpg|thumb|right|''Elysian Fields'' by [[Carlos Schwabe]], 1903]]

The term and concept of Elysium has had influence in modern popular culture; references to Elysium can be found in literature, art, film, and music. Examples include the [[New Orleans]] neighbourhood of Elysian Fields in [[Tennessee Williams]]' ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' as the déclassé purgatory where Blanche Dubois lives with Stanley and Stella Kowalski. New Orleans' Elysian Fields also provides the second-act setting of [[Elmer Rice]]'s ''[[The Adding Machine]]'' and [[Adding Machine (musical)|the musical adaptation]]. In his poem "Middlesex", [[John Betjeman]] describes how a few hedges "Keep alive our lost Elysium – rural Middlesex again". In his poem ''[[An Old Haunt]]'', [[Hugh McFadden (poet)|Hugh McFadden]] sets an Elysian scene in [[Dublin]]'s [[St. Stephen's Green]] park "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".<ref>{{cite book|last=McFadden|first=Hugh|title=Cities of Mirrors|year=1984|publisher=Beaver Row Press|location=Dublin|isbn=0-946308-08-X}}</ref> In ''[[Spring and All]]'', [[William Carlos Williams]] describes a dying woman's "elysian slobber/upon/the folded handkerchief".

The ''[[Champs-Élysées]]'' in [[Paris]] is [[French language|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, similar to how "the White House" can metonymically refer to the American presidency, and "No.10 Downing Street" the British prime minister. ''Elysium'' and ''Elysian'' are also used for numerous other names all over the world - examples include [[Elysian Fields (Hoboken, New Jersey)|Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey]]; [[Elysian Park, Los Angeles]]; [[Elysian Valley, Los Angeles, California]]; [[Elysian, Minnesota]]; and [[Elysian Fields, Texas]].

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

Elysium is referenced in the [[Schiller]] poem which inspired [[Beethoven]]'s "[[Ode to Joy]]" ([[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|9th symphony]], 4th movement) - notably in the excerpt used as the [[Anthem of Europe|European Anthem]]. Elysium is also referenced in Mozart's opera ''[[Die Zauberflöte]]'' (''The Magic Flute''). It is in Act II when Papageno is feeling very melancholy because he does not have a sweetheart or wife and he is drunk singing the song "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" (A Girl or a Wife).

The 2012 opera "[[Dolls of New Albion]]", written by [[Paul Shapera]], and its sequels, reference Elysium as an afterlife somewhat accessible to the living, though the living in Elysium are hunted by horrid creatures who guard Elysium.

===Books===
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".

In [[Masami Kurumada]]'s mythologically themed ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' comic books, the Elysium is the setting of the final chapters of the ''Hades'' arc. In it, the Saints, the warriors of [[Athena]]'s army, traverse the Underworld to defeat its ruler, the ruthless Hades and rescue their kidnapped goddess. The Saints discover that the only way to kill Hades is to destroy his true body, which has rested in Elysium since the ages of myth. The Saints then invade Elysium, which Kurumada depicts as described in Greek mythology, and carry on their mission after a difficult battle with the deity.

In the novel, ''This Ruler'', the story takes place at Elysium Hills High School. It is a reference to the mythology that surrounds American education and in particular high school. It also alludes to the teenagers, in the book, being Greek heroes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duff |first1=Mark |title=This Ruler |date=2019 |publisher=Mark Duff |location=USA |isbn=9780578476315}}</ref>

===Film and television===
* In ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and its spin-off ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', the actual Elysian Fields appear several times as a happy afterlife, with the families of the title characters dwelling there; [[Heaven]] appears as a separate location in the same universe.
* The 2013 [[dystopia]]n film ''[[Elysium (film)|Elysium]]'', starring [[Matt Damon]], used the name Elysium to describe the orbital space station of luxury that the rich live on in contrast to the ravaged Earth that the poor live on.<ref>{{Citation|last=Blomkamp|first=Neill|title=Elysium|date=2013-08-09|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/|others=Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley|access-date=2017-10-28}}</ref>

===Video games===
Elysium appears in the ''Fate of Atlantis'' DLC of the 2018 video game, ''[[Assassin's Creed Odyssey]]''. In the first part of this DLC, ''The Fields of Elysium'', the misthios travels to Elysium which is ruled by members of the precursor civilisation known as the Isu which were then worshipped as the gods of the Greek pantheon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/assassins-creed-odyssey-goes-mythical-in-new-fate-/1100-6466324/|title=Assassin's Creed Odyssey Goes Mythical In New Fate Of Atlantis DLC|website=Gamespot|language=en|access-date=2020-10-28}}</ref>

In 2021, the video game ''[[Honkai Impact 3rd]]'' added a roguelike gameplay mode called Elysian Realm. The player follows the character of Raiden Mei as she visits the Realm, known as the underworld where the memories of the last thirteen Flame-Chasers of the Previous Era rest.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ai-chan's Newsflash 3 - New permanent activity [Elysian Realm] unfolds! |url=https://honkaiimpact3.hoyoverse.com/global/en-us/news/14596?cate= |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=honkaiimpact3.hoyoverse.com}}</ref>

==Honours==
[[Elysian Beach]] in [[Antarctica]] and [[Elysium Mons]] on [[Mars]] are named after the Elysian Fields, as is the aforementioned ''[[Champs-Élysées|avenue des Champs-Élysées]]''.

==See also==
* [[Fortunate Isles]], mythical islands associated with Elysium
* The other divisions of the Greek underworld, [[Asphodel Meadows|Asphodel]] and [[Tartarus#Place|Tartarus]]
* [[Golden Bough (mythology)]]
* Related ideas of [[paradise]] like [[Aaru]] and [[Illiyin]]

==References==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Elysium |volume= VIII | page=156 |short=1 }}

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