Myth & LegendGreek → English
Elysium
/ɪˈlɪziəm/noun
The paradise of the Greek afterlife, reserved for heroes and the favoured dead.
The Greek roots
Ἠλύσιον
Ēlýsion
Elysian, of Elysium
πεδίον
pedíon
plain, field
Literally: “the Elysian plain”
The story of the word
In the Odyssey, Menelaus is told he will not die at all but be carried to the Elysian plain at the ends of the earth, where no snow falls and the west wind blows in off the ocean, and that he gets this because he married Helen. Later poets moved it underground and made it the good half of the underworld. The word's own origin is disputed; one line derives it from ἐνηλύσιον, a place struck by lightning and therefore sacred. Paris named its grandest avenue after it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
In a sentence
Virgil puts Anchises in Elysium, waiting among the souls due to be born.
Two weeks with no phone signal was his idea of Elysium.