Elysian Fields
Paradise reserved for heroes and the virtuous dead, located at the western edge of the world or in the depths of the Underworld.
The Story of Elysian Fields
Only the best dead go there — and even then, some chose to be reborn rather than stay in paradise forever. The Elysian Fields were ruled by Rhadamanthys and reserved for heroes related to the gods. Menelaus was promised Elysium because he married Helen, daughter of Zeus — not for any virtue of his own. Homer places it at the world's western edge, beyond Oceanus. Later sources (Virgil, Pindar) put it within the Underworld. In Orphic and Platonic thought, souls in Elysium could choose to be reborn; those who achieved Elysium three times in succession went to the Isles of the Blessed. Virgil's Aeneas meets his father Anchises there. The concept directly influenced Christian ideas of Heaven.
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Elysium
🏛 placeParadise for the blessed dead
The paradise at the edge of the world where heroes and the virtuous spent eternity in perfect happiness. Also called the Elysian Fields or the Isles of the Blessed.
Isles of the Blessed
🏛 placeafterlife
Ultimate paradise beyond even Elysium, reserved for souls who achieved three virtuous incarnations according to Orphic-Platonic teaching.
Hades
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast underground kingdom of the dead ruled by the god Hades and his queen Persephone
Underworld
🏛 placeRealm of the dead
The Underworld was the vast subterranean realm where all mortal souls went after death — a geography of rivers, fields, and judges more detailed than any other mythological afterlife.
Elysian Fields
💭 conceptParadise for the virtuous dead
The Elysian Fields were the blessed afterlife reserved for heroes and the exceptionally virtuous — a paradise of eternal spring where the dead lived without toil or sorrow.
Elysian
💭 conceptLanguage and the afterlife
An English adjective meaning blissful, heavenly, or supremely happy, derived from the Elysian Fields, the paradise in the Greek underworld reserved for heroes and the virtuous
Lethe
🏛 placeRiver of Forgetfulness
Lethe was the River of Forgetfulness in the underworld — the dead drank from it to erase all memory of their mortal lives before reincarnation.
Asphodel Fields
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast grey meadow in the underworld where the majority of ordinary souls wandered after death
Lilybaeum
🏛 placegeography
The westernmost promontory of Sicily, near where Odysseus encountered the land of the dead in some traditions.
Acheron
🏛 placeRiver of Woe in the underworld
The Acheron was the River of Woe in the underworld, which the dead had to cross — in some traditions it was Charon's river rather than the Styx.
Rhoeteum
🏛 placegeography
A promontory on the Trojan shore where the tomb of Ajax was located and pilgrims came to honour the hero.
Oracle of the Dead
🏛 placeunderworld, prophecy
The Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra in Epirus where the living consulted ghosts of the deceased through elaborate underground rituals.