(Ελύσιον), in the ancient theology, or rather mythology, a place in the inferi or lower world, furnished with fields, meads, agreeable woods, groves, shades, rivers, &c. whither the souls of good people were supposed to go after this life.
Orpheus, Hercules, and Aeneas, were supposed to have Elysiun have descended into Elysium in their life time, and to Elzevirs have returned again; (Virg. lib. vi. ver. 638, &c.) Tiberius (lib. i. eleg. 3.) gives us fine descriptions of the Elysian fields.
Virgil opposes Elysium to Tartarus; which was the place where the wicked underwent their punishment.
Hic locus est, partes ubi se via finit in ambas: Dextera, qua Ditis magni sub mania tendit: Hac iter Elysium nolit: ai leva malorum Exeget pecas, et ad impia Tartara mittit.
He assigns Elysium to those who died for their country, to those of pure lives, to truly inspired poets, to the inventors of arts, and to all who have done good to mankind.
Some authors take the fable of Elysium to have been borrowed from the Phoenicians; as imagining the name Elysium formed from the Phoenician ἑβαλαξ, or ἑβαλαῖος, or ἑβαλαῖ, "to rejoice," or "to be in joy;" the letter a being only changed into e, as we find done in many other names; as in Enakim for Anakim, &c. On which footing, Elysian fields should signify the same thing as a place of pleasure; or,
Locos Lactos, et amana vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas.
Others derive the word from the Greek λύω σώσω, "I deliver, I let loose or disengage;" because here men's souls are freed or disencumbered from the fetters of the body. Beroaldus, and Hornius (Hist. Philosop. lib. iii. cap. 2.) take the place to have derived its name from Eliza, one of the first persons who came into Greece after the deluge, and the author and father of the Ætolians.
The Elysian fields were, according to some, in the Fortunate Islands on the coast of Africa, in the Atlantic. Others place them in the island of Leuce; and, according to the authority of Virgil, they were situated in Italy. According to Lucian, they were near the moon; or in the centre of the earth, if we believe Plutarch. Olaus Wormius contends that it was in Sweden the Elysian fields were placed.