Forms: 7–8 elizeum, -ium, elyzium, 8 elisium, 6– elysium. [a L. ēlysium, ad. Gr. Ἠλύσιον (πεδίον) the abode of the blessed.]
1. The supposed state or abode of the blessed after death in Greek mythology.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., xiii. 44. Two passages … one leading into Elysium, the other into Tartarus.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 20. There is more in that Elizium of the Poets then a meere flowrish.
1702. Rowe, Amb. Step-Moth., IV. ii. 1845. That Lethe and Elisium Which Priests and Poets tell.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 321. The enjoyments of Elysium and punishments of Tartarus.
2. transf. Any similarly conceived abode or state of the departed.
1603. H. Petowe, in Farr’s S. P. Jas. I., 105. Shee’s hence, For sweet Eliza in Elizium lives.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 472. Thee who to enjoy Plato’s Elysium, leap’d into the Sea.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 511. The departed spirit is ten days in its passage to their happy elysium.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia (1853), 220. The son of the East [placed] … his elysium by cooling streams.
3. fig. A place or state of ideal or perfect happiness.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 291. The wretched Slaue all Night sleepes in Elizium.
1640. T. Carew, Poems, Wks. (1824), 60. Flye with me to love’s Elizium.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., IV. i. 1831. Injur’d Lovers find Elizium there.
1836. Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1875), 197. Holidays—the Elysium of our boyhood: perhaps the only one of our life.
† 4. attrib. Obs.
1616. Pasquil & Kath., III. 278. Why do’st thou forsake Elizeum pleasures.
c. 1685. Roxb. Ball. (1886), VI. 223. To th’ Elizium Shades I post.
c. 1740. Mrs. Pendarves, in Mrs. Delany’s Corr. (1861), I. 12. I has been at one play and one opera, and thought the poet’s description of the Elysium fields nothing to the delights of those entertainments.
