Elysion

Greek Elysion (Elysium in Latin) named the realm where the blessed dead — heroes, demigods, and those favored by the gods — spent eternity in perfect happiness. Homer's Odyssey (4.563) describes it as a plain at the earth's edge where there is no snow, no storm, and no rain, only the perpetually flowing west wind. Hesiod called the isles of the blessed, makaron nesoi. The etymology of Elysion is unknown — possibly pre-Greek.

As Greek philosophy developed the concept of the soul's journey, the Elysian Fields became more elaborately described. Virgil's Aeneid (Book VI) shows Aeneas visiting Elysium: a bright, sunlit place where heroes engage in athletics, music, and intellectual discourse — a Roman ideal of the good life extended into eternity. Pindar's odes to victorious athletes promised Elysium to those of pure life.

The word 'elysian' entered English in the 16th century as an adjective for anything paradisaical — perfectly happy, serenely beautiful. Milton used it; so did Keats, Shelley, and Tennyson. Elysian became the go-to classical adjective for transcendent happiness or beauty, a rhetorical elevation above mere earthly pleasure.

Paris's Champs-Élysées — the Elysian Fields — was named by the Marquis de Marigny in the 1670s when the avenue was a pleasant rural walk extending from the Tuileries. Today it is the most expensive commercial real estate in France, lined with luxury brands. The Elysian Fields of perfect ease survived the transformation into high-end retail.