Elysium

noun

Ely·​si·​um i-ˈli-zhē-əm 

-zē-

plural Elysiums or Elysia i-ˈli-zhē-ə 

-zē-

1

: an eternal paradise in ancient Greek mythology originally only for heroes and others granted immortality by the gods and later also for the blessed dead and those who lived a righteous life : elysian field

Homer believed that the Canaries [Canary Islands] were Elysium, a place where the righteous spent their afterlife, and thereafter they have been known as the "Fortunate Islands".

—David Sandhu

2

: a place or state of bliss, felicity, or delight : paradise

Outside, paths led through a manicured landscape to batting cages and warmup areas, and, beyond, to four full-sized, serenely perfect playing fields. It was a little Elysium devoted exclusively to health, comfort, and baseball.

—Bill Bryson

As soon as I tasted it, gravity dropped away and I was floating freely in a creamy Elysium. For days, I could not stop telling my friends about this milky Italian intoxicant called burrata.

—Jeff Gordinier

Did you know?

This word came into Latin from the Greek Elysion. In classical mythology, Elysium, or the Elysian fields, was the home of the blessed after death, the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the pure. So it's easy to see how the word came to mean any place or state of bliss or delight. When we try to picture heaven, many of us probably see a lovely park; the great boulevard of Paris was named for the beautiful park that originally bordered it: the Champs-Elysées, or Elysian Fields.

Synonyms

• above
• bliss
• elysian fields
• empyrean
• heaven
• kingdom come
• New Jerusalem
• paradise
• sky
• Zion
• Sion

Examples of Elysium in a Sentence

the mourners were comforted by their belief that the saintly woman was now experiencing the joys of Elysium

the universal pipe dream that there exists somewhere an earthly Elysium where people live trouble-free lives

Recent Examples on the Web

This uncertainty makes Disco Elysium’s characters memorable, relatable, and moving. —G Kirilloff, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024

Saturday: Rendez-Vous at Elysium Rendez-Vous is pinnacle Paris post-punk. —Mars Salazar, Austin American-Statesman, 31 Oct. 2024

Ideas By Ed Simon October 31, 2024 7:00 AM EDT Simon is the editor of Belt Magazine and the author of numerous books, including most recently Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost, Elysium: A Visual History of Angelology, and Relic, part of the Object Lessons series. —Ed Simon, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024

On the surface, Off the Grid is most comparable to Elysium, Blomkamp’s dystopian film starring Matt Damon as a factory worker who dons an experimental exoskeleton to fight his way off Earth and onto a luxurious space station fitted with medical technology that can cure his cancer. —Issy Van Der Velde, Rolling Stone, 19 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin, from Greek Ēlysion

First Known Use

1567, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Elysium

noun

Ely·​si·​um i-ˈlizh-ē-əm 

-ˈliz-

: a place or state of ideal happiness

Elysian

-ˈlizh-ən

adjective

Etymology

derived from Greek Ēlysion, name in mythology of a place for the dead