Elysium

Elysium In Greek and Roman mythology, the home of blessed dead. In early Greek mythology it was said to be situated in the Islands of the Blessed in some remote part of the earth. In later Greek and Roman mythology the location of the Elysian Fields (another name) was in the underworld. Vergil’s Aeneid (book 6) tells how the hero Aeneas meets his dead father, Anchises, in the Elysian fields. Elysium is used in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona (2.7.37), Henry VI, Part III (1.2.30), and Twelfth Night (1.2.3); Milton’s Comus (257); Cowper’s Progress of Error; Andrew Lang’s The Fortunate Islands; Schiller’s Elysium; Shelley’s “Ode to Naples” (30); and Swinburne’s “Garden of Proserpine.” The Champs Elysées in Paris is named after the Greek myth.

SEE ALSO:

• Roman Mythology

SOURCE:

Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante

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