Elysium

Homer places Elysius at the western edge of the world, off the banks of the Ocean River . ^[4] In The Odyssey , he says that Elysius is the place where

... human life awaits the lightest.

There is no rain there, no snow, no storms are cruel.

Forever there the Ocean with the invigorating breath of Zephyr

It blows with a blowing whistle to deliver coolness to people.

(translation by Vincent Veresaev ^[5] )

According to Hesiod, only the fourth-generation heroes who died in the battles (“centuries of heroes”) were settled on the Islands blessed by Zeus ^[6] . Ordinary Greeks, including Hesiod himself, the Greeks belong to the fifth generation. Here is what the famous religious historian Mircea Eliade writes about the afterlife of an ordinary Greek:

“But death does not allow anything, because it does not lead to a complete and final disappearance. Homer's contemporaries saw the afterlife as a painful and miserable existence in the underground kingdom of Hades, inhabited by pale shadows, powerless and deprived of memory. (The shadow of Achilles, which Odysseus summoned, complains that it is better to be a slave to the last poor than to reign over the shadows of the departed. [...] Moreover, the afterlife does not reward lifetime merits and does not punish crimes. Only Ixion , Tantalus and Sisyphus , who inflicted personal insults on Zeus. Instead of Hades, Menelaus found Elysius only as Elena’s husband, respectively, Zeus’s son-in-law. According to Hesiod (cf. § 85), other heroes were also honored, but their fate was unavailable to other mortals. ” ^{[ 7]}

Later, in ancient art, the idea of ​​retribution nevertheless appears, Elysius becomes "available" to the blessed souls and initiates ^[6] . So Pindar speaks of an island on which, among the shady alleys, the righteous lead a blissful life, arranging sports games and music evenings. ^[4] As ethical thought develops, Virgil sees Elysius as a place of retribution by the righteous ^[8] :

Here, for the fatherland, who, while fighting, took wounds,

Who remained immaculate, priests throughout life,

Who are the pious, the prophets, the worthy of Phoebe,

To the invented skilful who have dedicated their lives,

The memory left who in others about me deserved ...

(translation by Valery Bryusov and Sergey Solovyov ^[9] )

Transformed into snakes, Cadmus and his wife Harmony got here.

From this word came the name of the Paris Avenue Champs Elysees . Not to be confused with the name “ Elisha ”, which is found in the Bible (from Heb. אֱלִישַׁע - Elisha , “God is salvation” ^[10] ).

In Valentin Kataev’s memoir “ My Diamond Crown ”, the image of “eternal spring” becomes the epic center of the story, the story begins with this image and ends with it .

• Blissful islands
• Fields Ialu
• Champs Elysees
• Iriy