Elysian

See also: elysian

English

WOTD – 27 September 2017

Etymology

Sebastiaen Vrancx, L’Elysée ou Enée retrouvant son père aux Champs Elysées (The Elysium, or Aeneas Finding His Father at the Elysian Fields, between 1597 and 1607), from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon in Lyon, France. It depicts a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid where Aeneas meets his father Anchises in Elysium.

From Latin Elysium (from Ancient Greek Ἠλύσιον (Ēlúsion, “Elysium; an Elysian Field; one of the Elysian Fields”)) +‎ -an (adjective-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪz.i.ən/
  • Hyphenation: Ely‧si‧an

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈliː.ʒən/
  • Hyphenation: Ely‧sian

Proper noun

Elysian

1. (Greek mythology) Elysium (“the home of the blessed after death”).

Adjective

Elysian (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to Elysian or Elysium, the location.
   • 1826, John Frederick Dennett, “The Second Voyage of Captain Parry”, in The Voyages and Travels of Captains Parry, Franklin, Ross, and Mr. Belzoni; Forming an Interesting History of the Manners, Customs, and Characters of Various Nations, Visited by Enterprising Travellers, London: Published by J. Jacques and W. Wright, 13, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 246:

     Departed spirits do not however make a joyful and immediate entrance into these elysian fields, but must first slide for the space of five days, or, according to others, for a still longer period, down a rough rock, which the Greenlanders, by a strange contradiction, represent to be quite bloody.

   • 1897, Alexander Henry, David Thompson, “Ethnography of Fort Vermilion”, in Elliott Coues, editor, New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry, Fur Trader of the Northwest Company and of David Thompson, Official Geographer of the Same Company 1799–1814: Exploration and Adventure among the Indians on the Red, Saskatchewan, Missouri and Columbia Rivers [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Francis P. Harper, →OCLC, part II (The Saskatchewan and Columbia Rivers), page 529:

     But everyone that has lived a wicked life on earth, committed murder in his own nation, or been guilty of suicide, must pass by a different route to the Elysian fields. He has a steep precipice to climb, which gives him much pain and trouble; […]

2. Blissful, happy, heavenly.
   • 1774, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the Second, London: […] Edward and Charles Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: William Creech, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVI, page 19:

     O vvho of man the ſtory vvill unfold, / Ere victory and empire vvrought annoy, / In that elyſian age (miſnamed of gold) / The age of love, and innocence and joy, […]

   • 1909, Louis Gillet, “Giulio Romano”, in Charles G[eorge] Herbermann et al., editors, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church [...] In Fifteen Volumes, volumes VI (Fathers–Gregory), New York, N.Y.: Robert Appleton Company, →OCLC, pages 572, column 2 – 573, column 1:

     Unlike Raphael's "Galatea" and his "Three Graces", examples of Elysian happiness in a race in the state of innocence, Giulio [Romano]'s decorations resemble saturnalia of lubricity itself.

   • 2007 spring, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “Astrophobos”, in John Gregory Betancourt, editor, Adventure Tales, volume 1, number 4, Rockville, Md.: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 117:

     Mystic waves of beauty blended / With the gorgeous golden rays / Phantasies of bliss descended / In a myrrh'd Elysian haze. / In the lyre-born chords extended / Harmonies of Lydian lays.

   • 2015, David Turner, “Embracing the Examination Incubus 1945–1979”, in The Old Boys: The Decline and Rise of the Public School, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 193:

     Winchester College has an Elysian quality, doubtless appreciated by the classical masters who supplied its educational staple for most of its six-century history.

Alternative forms

• elysian

Synonyms

• (blissful, happy): see Thesaurus:blissful

Related terms

• Elysian Fields

Translations

of or pertaining to Elysium

• Catalan: elisi
• French: élyséen (fr)
• Galician: elisio (gl)
• Italian: elisio (it)
• Latin: Ēlysius
• Polish: elizejski
• Portuguese: elísio
• Spanish: elíseo

blissful, happy, heavenly

See also

• Champs-Élysées

Noun

Elysian (plural Elysians)

1. An inhabitant of the mythological Elysium.

Further reading

• Elysium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Elysian Fields (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Ainsley