Elysium

Thouin, Jardin public, Champs Elysées, c. 1820
Thouin, Jardin public, Champs Elysées, c. 1820

[Odysseus] has no boats with oars or crew to row him
across the sea's broad back to his own land.
But Menelaus, it is not your fate
to die in Argos. Gods will carry you
off to the world's end, to Elysium.
Those fields are ruled by tawny Rhadamanthus
and life is there the easiest for humans.
There is no snow, no heavy storms or rains,
but Ocean always sends up gentle breezes
of Zephyr to refresh the people there.

Homer, Odyssey, IV, 558 - 576
English translation by Emily Wilson

Franz Nadorp, Goethe's arrival in Elysium
Franz Nadorp, Goethe’s arrival in Elysium

Descendant of: 

MYTHOLOGY AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD   REALITY AND UNREALITY  


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