What were the Elysian Fields

A. As�Papillon says, the Elysian Fields - variously called Elysian Plains and Elysium - were, in Greek mythology, a kind of paradise. The epic poems of Homer - composed some time between the 9th and 11th centuries BC - describe it as a land of bliss located by the banks of the River Oceanus, the mythical waterway that ran around the perimeter of the earth.

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Q. A heaven on earth, then
A. Unlike the Christian, Jewish and Muslim concepts of heaven, it was not, at least during the early Greek period, the automatic destination of the virtuous dead. Only the gods were believed to be immortal, and the only mortals to be granted an afterlife were their favoured sons-in-law.

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The concept of Elysium may have its roots in a pre-historic Indo-European tradition, as pre-Christian Celtic mythology in Ireland had a similar belief - known as the Land of the Living or the Delightful Plain - as did the Etruscans in Italy. The Greek concept changed over time, and by around 700 BC the poet Hesiod described it as a land for the blessed to live in after death, and a couple of hundred years after that Pindar was describing it as a place of reward for those who had lived a good life. This interpretation was certainly true of the Orphics, an ascetic sect who, among other things, believed in abstinence from meat, wine and sex, and that the souls of the dead would be judged according to the conduct of their lives, and, if they'd been good, then they would live for eternity in Elysium.

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Q. What does it mean today
A. Today, the terms elysium and elysian are used to denote a place or state of ideal happiness.

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Q. And where can you find it
A. Probably the most famous of contemporary Elysian Fields are the Avenue des Champs Elyses, the elegant 2 km-long boulevard between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde� in Paris. Originally an open field on the outskirts of the city, it was laid out by Baron Haussmann in the 1860s. There is also, not surprisingly, an Elysian in the USA, in Minnesota, centre of the Southern Minnesota Lakes Region by all accounts. Elysium Mons is a volcano on Mars, rising some 6 km from the mean surface level of the Tharsis rise - hardly a place of metaphysical bliss, although there is a website promoting the terrestrialisation of the Martian atmosphere, and referring to it as a 'new Elysium'.

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By Simon Smith