If you are wondering what to see in France, many options will emerge and among them, we are sure, the Champs-Elysées avenue in Paris will sound like a spectacle. However, in We will tell you about a mythical place, a place reserved only for virtuous souls., the Elysian Fields of which Greek mythology has reported in many of its writings. Join us to discover what Elysium was and why everyone wanted to be there in the «afterlife.»
The Elysian Fields of Greek mythology
As we already know, for Christians, once people die, the souls of those who have behaved correctly will go to Heaven; for the Jews, once the Messiah has come, they will go to the Bosom of Abraham; For Muslims, the reward is Paradise. Finally, for the Greeks and their mythology, The place of eternal rest was Elysium or the Elysian Fields. The latter have been an enigma throughout time, from their function to their origin. That is why we want to reveal some of the secrets that Greek mythology hides around the Champs Elysées.
For the ancient Greeks, man must die with certainty, a life awaiting him in the Beyond. In the world of Greek mythology, The idea of death forges an important part of poetry, music and art, it is so much so that many of the Greek gods punish people who do something wrong with death. However, his vision of what there is after death is confusing and somewhat bizarre…
The Elysian Fields, Elysium, the Fields of the Blessed or Fortunate Islands, are some names that are present in Greek mythology and its imagination, used to name a comfortable place, where death does not exist and that has many geographical details. Certain heroes end up on the Champs Elysées who are chosen directly by the gods or selected by virtue of a criterion of conduct.
Ἠλύσιον πεδία or Êlýsia Pediía, whose translation is fields or plains «struck by lightning», is the place where the «shadows» lived eternally. This idea possibly came from the Minoan religion. The Shadows were the immortal souls of human beings. The souls of all the men and women who had led a virtuous life and those of the warriors whose behavior had been heroic, They had the right to a happy eternity, surrounded by maximum happiness, in a place of extreme natural beauty., and that place was Elysium within mythology. The condemned, however, would live an eternity of torment in Tartarus, one of the worst places in the Greek underworld.
The origin of the Champs Elysées
The Islands of the Blessed, the Elysian Fields or Elysium, are expressions to define a single place in Greek mythology, an otherworldly dimension in which heroes and nymphs move as main protagonists.
The origin of the Champs Elysées seems to have arisen from mythology and its influences on other cultures on Greek territory. Some historians consider that this idea of the Champs Elysées, sIt comes from Hebrew or Mesopotamian legends such as Inanna, the Sumerian goddess.. Likewise, they also sense that the construction of this world may come from Egyptian, Iberian and Phoenician legends; That is to say, the Champs Elysées arise from a mixture of Indo-European mythology, which is also very complex.
For a long time, Greek literature has provided us with numerous writings where the Elysian Fields appear. In the first centuries, it makes an appearance (believed to be the first) in song IV of the Odyssey by Homer, and another very similar one in song IV of the Argonautics by Apollonius of Rhodes, in a passage of clear Homeric influence. However, other authors such as H. Wagenvoort, cIt is believed that the idea of the Elysian Fields arose long before Homer., argues that the idea of Elysium in mythology was already a common idea of the Greeks at the end of the second millennium. It is possible, although not certain, that The contacts between the Egyptian and Greek worlds were the basis of a connection between these ideas..
What were the Champs Elysées like?
According to some stories, including Homer, Hesiod and Pindar, the Elysian Fields in mythology are a utopia. They are understood as a country at the end of the known world, at the ends of the earth, in the far west and beyond the Ocean. These lands have a very fertile soil, which generates fruits without the need for work, and climatic wonders: the existence of a single eternal and the absence of rain.
We must highlight that the Champs Elysées break the limits of time. Unlike the contradictions, imperfections and disappointments of earthly life, This paradise is reflected in the past, present and future. The Elysian fields of the past are based in the Golden Age, where perfection reigns. The Elysium of the future is presented as a Beyond blessed, similar to the promised Christian paradise. And finally, the Champs Elysées of the present, located at the ends of the world, within the framework of the idealization of inaccessible areas, is understood, as the refuge for absolute happiness.
To reach Elysium you had to cross the Acheron River, go through the underworld and finally the Lethe River. There the gods lived, free and sinless, and they chose the humans who should share eternal happiness.. First, only to those who were related to them for some reason, but then also, as we have said, to the virtuous and the heroes. Evergreen meadows, water, wine and ambrosia in abundance, and at the end the Golden City in which the spirits lived in continuous euphoria.
Some modern authors have claimed to discover the geographical position of the Champs Elysees outside of their mythology. Reading some passages with great attention of the Odyssey, They establish that the stories of sailors at the end of the 11th century BC would have surpassed the limits of the pillars of Hercules, founding colonies on the Atlantic coast, that is, America. The same place where Atlantis is said to have existed.
Living in Elysium
The majority of people who believed in the Champs Elysées based their belief on what they were going to receive after they died, that is, living in a paradise. On the Champs Elysées life was peaceful, without work or effort, in general, I was far from all the negative aspects. This space (wherever it was) was thought to be an idyllic paradise. In a text of pagan origin, known as Bran’s Journey, some Hellenic narratives about life in Elysium are highlighted. It is said that there are no physical changes that mark the human life cycle, there are no diseases, illnesses or death.
Greek mythology is full of examples of kidnappings and transfers to the underworld. Some of the characters who suffer these abductions come to know a happy life on the Champs-Élysées. As we can see, The Champs Elysées have a deep meaning in Greek mythologywhere heroes, gods and selected people can live peacefully for all eternity.
Would you like to live in the Greek paradise? We read you. And in case you want to know more about him Beyond, We recommend you read the gods of Ancient Egypt.