ELISI, FIELDS. - The place to which the ancient Greeks imagined certain favorites of the gods, of whom they were often descendants or relatives, were transported, body and soul. Later beliefs also placed there the heroes of mythology and history, Achilles, Diomedes, Menelaus, etc.
One group of the ancients separates Elysium from the rest of the underworld and places it at the edge of the earth or in the Ocean (in which case it is identified with the islands of the blessed) or in the sky. For others (Aristophanes, Virgil) it is part of the underworld and is imagined beneath the earth. There was perfect material and moral happiness, without cares or obligations of work, gladdened by wine, music and dances: the Attic poets who describe it in the 5th-4th centuries B.C. take the initiation of Eleusis as their model. At the head of Elysium were Rhadamanthus and Cronus, or both. According to some moderns, the name and concept of the Elysian Fields would be pre-Hellenic. The Romans followed the Greeks in the depiction of Elysium.
Bibliography7 worksL. Malten, Elysion und Rhadamanthys, in Jahrbuch des deutsch. archäol. Inst., 23 (1913), p. 35 ff.; E. Rohde, Psyche, 9th-10th ed., I, Tübin
BIBL.: L. Malten, Elysion und Rhadamanthys, in Jahrbuch des deutsch. archäol. Inst., 23 (1913), p. 35 ff.; E. Rohde, Psyche, 9th-10th ed., I, Tübingen 1925, p. 68 ff.; M. Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, Lund 1927, p. 541 ff.; P. Capelle, Elysion und Inseln der Seligen, in Archiv. für Religionswiss., 25 (1927), p. 245 ff.; 26 (1928), p. 37 ff.; E. Wiken, Die Kunde der Hellenen von dem Lande und den Völkern der Apenninenhalbinsel bis 300 v. Chr., Lund 1937, ch. 1; M. Nilsson, Gesch. der Griech. Religion, I, Munich 1941, p. 302 ff.
Banti, Luisa. “Elisi, campi.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, col. 255. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/elisi-campi.
MLA
Banti, Luisa. “Elisi, campi.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 255. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/elisi-campi.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_elisi_campi,
author = {Banti, Luisa},
title = {Elisi, campi},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {255},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/elisi-campi}
}
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