Sprachvergleichung und Urgesch

Grammatical information: adj.

Meaning: adjunct of πεδίον (δ 563, A. R. 4, 811, Str., Plu.), also without main substantive (IG 14, 1750); rarely Ήλύσιος λειμών, χῶρος (Luc., late inscr.) Abode of the Blessed after death.

Derivatives: Ήλύσιος `Elysian' ( αὖραι etc., IG 14, 1389). Here also ἐν-ηλύσιος ἐμβρόντητος, κεραυνόβλητος H., ἐνηλύσια (A. Fr. 17) τὰ κατασκηφθέντα χωρία H.? taken as "being in Elysion", as those hit by lightning acc. to folk belief would come in a higher form of life (thus Cocco, s. below). In the same meaning also the simplex ἠλύσια n. pl. (Polem. Hist. 93).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: Unexplained, without a doubt Pre-Greek (e. g. Malten ArchJb. 28, 35ff.; on Elysion as Pre-Greek conception Nilsson Gr. Rel. 1, 324ff.). Often connected with ἐλεύσομαι, ἤλυθον (EM 428, 36, Fick 1³, 200, Capelle Arch. f. Religionswiss. 26, 30ff.); against this view a. o. Wackernagel Dehnungsgesetz 5 (= Kl. Schr. 2, 901), Güntert Kalypso 38 n. 3. Untenable IE etymologies also by Schrader Sprachvergleichung und Urgesch.³ 435 (to Lith. vė̃lės `ghosts of the dead', OWNo. valr m. sg. `the corpses on the battlefield' etc.; against these views Güntert l. c.), by Carnoy Beitr. z. Namenforschung 7, 119 (to ἦλος τόπος..., ἐν ᾦ οὑδεν φύεται H.). Explanations from Semitic (Lewy Fremdw. 219ff., Cocco Biblos 31, separ. ed. 1ff.) are also to be considered wrong. Beekes, FS Watkins 1998, 19-23, refutes that somebody struck by lightning goes to Elysion; against Burkert, Glotta 39 (1961) 208 -213. He thinks the word is derived with - ιο- from a geographical name * ᾽Ε\/ ᾽Αλυτ\/θ-, with long first vowel, perhaps metri causa.

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