Elysium in popular culture

Elysium features often in popular culture.

Contemporary music

• A single released by the British trio; Bear's Den in July 2014.
• Elysium is the name of the eleventh studio album by British synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 5 September 2012.^[1][2]
• Sounds of Elysium 008 - Sunny Lax 2010 Mix (Progressive Trance)
• Elysium is the title of Finnish power metal band Stratovarius's 2011 album.
• Elysium is referenced in progressive metal band Symphony X's song The Odyssey, which is largely based around the adventures of Odysseus.
• The American deathcore band Chelsea Grin has a track titled "Elysium" on their album "Desolation of Eden"
• A song by the American rock band, Clutch, in their song "Burning Beard", features the following lyrics: "The power of the Holy Ghost comes to town / Shadow of the New Praetorian / Tipping cows in fields Elysian / Saturnalia for all you have / The seven habits of the highly infected calf".
• A song by the British Hip-Hop group Rhyme Asylum titled 'Iller Instinct' contains the lyric "I hope this beat's flame resistant, when I come off the top I've lost the plot like books with pages missing. I won't break tradition, I'm keeping it real, plant seeds of destruction in the Elysium fields."
• A song by former Glasgow metal band Lithium
• "Elysian Fields" is the title of a song by the metal band Megadeth from their album Youthanasia. It is about souls sentenced to eternal damnation fighting to storm heaven.
• The song "Reeses Pieces, I Don't Know Who John Cleese Is?" by I Set My Friends On Fire has a lyric:"Those Elysian smiles I thought I'd keep forever!"
• "Elysian Fields" is a song by Irish Post-Rock band God Is An Astronaut from the album A Moment of Stillness. This song is an instrumental.
• "Elysian Fields" is a New York City-based rock band formed in 1995.
• Mary Chapin Carpenter's album 'Between Here and Gone' contains the song 'Elysium', where, following a long personal journey, paradise is found in the heart of her soulmate.
• Elizium is the title of an album by Fields of the Nephilim. The album contains track-titles such as '(Paradise Regained)' and lyrics including "over to the window, where the night has become Elizium for the sleepless souls" and references to "some kind of Heaven" (from 'At the Gates of Silent Memory'); whilst an overall theme of voyages towards a blissful afterlife/otherworld dominates the entire album.
• Elysium is a bond's track that appears on their album "Play" 2011.
• Elysium is the title of a dance and happy hardcore music track by Scott Brown (DJ). The chorus line lyrics have potential links to interpersonal, spiritual, and higher-order concepts or ideologies.
• The track, Elysium, by Scott Brown has remixed by Trance/House group Ultrabeat with additional lyrics and the BPM reduced. That version has then been remixed back into happy hardcore by Scott Brown.
• Elysium is a song by the Band LostAlone.
• "Devoured Elysium" is a song by Vital Remains from their album Dechristianize, released in 2003.
• Portishead has a song entitled Elysium on their 1997 self-titled album.
• Wings Of Severance has a song called Elysium on their self-titled album.
• The Velvet Teen's second full-length album was entitled Elysium.
• In the movie Gladiator, "Elysium" is the name of the song played during Maximus's death. The film shows the character walking through fields of crops. It is ambiguous whether this is supposed to be Elysium or his family farm, it is likely that it represents both.
• The video to the song "It Means Nothing" by the Stereophonics shows the spirits of the dead in white robes walking through fields of crops to be taken away in hot air balloons
• David Gray's song The One I Love has the lyrics "Don’t see Elysium, Don’t see no fiery Hell".
• Hardcore band named Elysia from Sacramento, California
• A song titled "Elysium" appears on the album Wonderful by British 1990s band Madness.
• A song titled "Elysium" appears on Phoenix, Az rock band Vayden's albu – "Children of Our Mistakes".
• An indie/rock band from Britain is called "Elysium".^[3]
• A death-metal Band from Germany is called "Elysium".^[4]
• A punk-metal band from Tampa, Florida is called Elysium.^[5]
• A rock band from Newton, IA is called Elysium.
• The line "As the sands slowly turn to Elysian Fields" is featured in the song "Sahara" by Finnish metal band Nightwish.
• The line "and cross the river of styx, you will reach elysian fields" is featured in the song "Into the light" by the Hardcore metal band John Doe.
• The Alaskan metal/post-hardcore band 36 Crazyfists has a song entitled "Elysium" featuring Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones on their 'Rest Inside the Flames' album.
• The phrase "Why is it called Elysian Fields when love builds only grief" is featured in the song "The Seer", by Finnish soprano Tarja Turunen, in the album My Winter Storm.
• Polish blackned/death metal band Behemoth mentions an Elysium in their song "Conquer All" in the line "Mightiest self! Cast out ov thy Elysium with blood ov nazarene." And in the song "as above so below" they reference it in the line "art thou nephilim child are you looking for thy elysium here." In addition to the songs before, in the song "Be Without Fear", a line follows "materialize the ashes ov Elysium burned".
• Swedish pop singer and former A*Teens band member Amit Paul has a song entitled "My Elysium" on his debut solo album "Songs in a Key of Mine."
• UK Hardcore DJ Scott Brown has a song entitled "Elysium+", found on many Hardcore compilations.
• Canadian progressive death metal band Into Eternity have a song titled "Elysium Dream" on their 2002 album Dead or Dreaming.
• A metalcore band called Elysion Fields is from Antioch, Illinois (myspace.com/elysionfieldsband).
• Swedish melodic death metal Arch Enemy's song "Dead Bury Their Dead" off of the first CD of Wages of Sin, contains the line ... "..I walk through Elysian Fields... the light is shining.. on me!"
• A sideband of Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart called "the Lovemongers" recorded a song called "Elysian".
• Charlotte Church's song "Dream a Dream" from her album of the same name contains the line "We will find Elysium."
• A progressive power metal band Into Eternity's song titled "Elysium Dream".
• A song by singer/songwriter, Davis Howley, entitled "Our Elysium".
• An album by singer / songwriter, Azam Ali, entitled "Elysium for the Brave".
• Bristol metalcore band Evita have a song titled "The Elysium Fields".
• The Branford Marsalis Quartet 1999 album, Requiem, has a song titled "Elysium". The album is the last recording made by the quartet's pianist Kenny Kirkland. Marsalis writes, "This record represents first takes of most of the songs and, unfinished as it is, it is a documentation of what, for me, was one of the most challenging and enduring musical relationships I have ever experienced." Presumably, the title is intended to speak of Kirkland's afterlife experience.
• A Progressive Death-Thrash band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is called "Slaughter of Elysium"
• UK band Madness included a song "Elysium" on their 1999 album "Wonderful".
• Sound Horizon's albums Elysion ~Rakuen e no Zensōkyoku~ and Elysion ~Rakuen Gensō Monogatari Kumikyoku~.
• "West of the Fields" – the final song on the R.E.M. album Murmur features the lyric 'dream now- of Elysium' in the first verse of the song. The song then equates dream states with being beyond the land of the dead.
• Kelley Polar's song "Roseband" has repeated line, "And all around us was Elysium".
• Elysium is referenced in The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, a popular series among youth in the United States centered on a teenage human-vampire hybrid. In the series vampire-kind calls itself collectively as Elysia and is also known as such by the human Slayer Society as a point of clarity. Their hidden connections and influences in humanity's industries and business have granted them more than sufficient wealth and luxury to accompany their "immortality", hence the reference to the Elysian afterlife paradise.
• Elysian Night is a song by the Swedish Doom metal band Draconian on the 2011 album A Rose for the Apocalypse
• The chorus of Mark Lanegan's 2012 song "Quiver Syndrome" includes the lyrics "The moon don't smile on Saturday's Child / lying still in Elysium Fields"
• Elysium is referenced in the aria Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Mozart's The Magic Flute.^[6]
• "Elysian" is a 1991 album and song by German band M. Walking on the Water.
• "Elysian Blaze" is a Black / Funeral Doom Metal band.^[7]

Television

• In the fourth season of the anime Sailor Moon, the guardian of dreams, Helios, resides in Elysion. In the manga version of that plotline, Elysion is equally important to the arc.
• In Doctor Who, Davros, creator of the Daleks, was said to have been lost at the Gates of Elysium during the first year of the Time War, when his command ship was swallowed by the Nightmare Child.
• In the third and fifth seasons of the anime Digimon, Dukemon has an attack called "Final Elysium", where he fires a red beam from his Shield.
• In the Hades arc of both the anime and manga of Saint Seiya, the bronze saints infiltrate Elysion to rescue Athena from Hades.
• In the fifth-season episode "Lineage" of the television show Angel Wesley Wyndam-Pryce uses the word Elysium as a password to enter his high secure vaults within his office.
• In the final episode of the British sitcom Green Wing, Martin hears that Mac will be going to "Elyssian Fields", which he thinks is a place in Dorset. He later learns that it actually means that he is going to die.
• In the anime series Spawn (season 3, episode 2), the Elysium Fields were mentioned by the bounty hunter Jade, asking Spawn to kill her so she would die in battle and have peace in the Fields instead of going to Hell for sparing HellSpawn.
• In the fourth season of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, it is shown that the Fields of Elysium are part of the Colonial religion's teachings about the afterlife. Colonial religion is heavily influenced by real-world Greek mythology.
• In Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys the Elysian Fields was a wide, open garden centered on a tower. There is a crack in this dimension to access Tartarus.
• In the episode "Last Call" of the television show Dead Like Me, the reaper Mason is sent to "Elysian Lake" to reap a man. The man dies after being struck by lightning while swimming in the lake.
• In the episode "Hammer of the Gods" in the fifth season of the television show Supernatural, Sam and Dean Winchester are lured to the Elysian Fields Hotel by a diverse group of gods holding counsel there.
• In the Netflix series House of Cards (season 5, episode 8), a secret society mentions Elysium and Elysium Fields.

Films

• In Mister Roberts, the ship The USS Reluctant, was sent to the "Limbo Islands", specifically to Elysium Island for liberty. The capitol of the island is "Elysium City". Elysium is the largest of the Limbo Islands. It is often referred to as the Polynesian paradise. Vanilla, sugar, cocoa, coffee, phosphates and rum are the chief exports.^[8]
• In Gladiator Maximus: "Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!"^[9] Additionally, Maximus' description of his home in Hispania to Marcus Aurelius evokes Elysium, an idealic paradise on earth that Maximus calls home. It is these golden fields that Maximus imagines himself walking through at the start of the movie. When Maximus is dying in the Coliseum at the movie's end, he hallucinates a gate, which when pushed open reveals a giant poplar, inhabited by his deceased wife and son. When he finally dies, he is seen one last time walking through this field towards his family. This evocation of Elysium is evidently an intentional link made by Ridley Scott – by basing Maximus' imagination of heaven on his description of home, he gives the concept of Elysium itself a tangible link to the real world.
• In The Man from Elysian Fields (2001 film),^[10] Mick Jagger plays a high priced male escort.
• Phantom of the Opera, In the opening scene of "The Masqurade" Andre sings the line "Of Elysian Peace." in reference to the Phantom's three-month absence.
• In the 2009 science fiction thriller Pandorum, Elysium is the name of the ill-fated starship on which the film takes place. In the film, the Elysium is a large sleeper ship built in Earth orbit and designed for a 123-year one way journey to a fictional planet called Tanis. The Elysium carries 60,000 colonists in suspended animation along with substantial specimens of Earth's biosphere to assist in colonization of Tanis. The ship is piloted by flight teams who rotate on two year duty shifts where they are awake and monitor the ship's systems. The Elysium is powered by an unspecified form of nuclear power.
• Wanderlust (2012). Was the hippie-like self-sustained community where the main characters end up living after they have lost everything.
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) The main character Hushpuppy and her friends are carried by a boat from their island home, the Bathtub, to a floating night club called Elysian Fields.
• In the science fiction film titled Elysium (2013),^[11] by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is the name of space-station projecting the image of a paradise without disease, poverty or war. Elysium is juxtaposed with Earth where the constraints of sickness, poverty and population make life a fight for survival.

In Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella's apartment is called Elysian Fields, which is symbolic of Blanche's eventual descent into madness.

Games

• In Aion: The Tower of Eternity, the name of the angelic faction is "Elyos," and their homelands are called "Elysea."
• In the Deponia series, Elysium is the city in the clouds that the rich, intelligent, and beautiful people live in, from which Goal falls, and to which Rufus is trying to go.
• In earlier editions of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, Elysium is the outer (spiritual) plane of absolute and purist good alignment – also referred to as Neutral Good – without any partisan regard towards law (as with the Seven Heavens) or chaos (as with Olympus/Arvandor/Arborea).
• An early antagonist in Dragon's Dogma is the leader of armageddon cult "Salvation", who "...was given the name Elysion to refer to the paradise that they expect to follow death."
• In God of War: Chains of Olympus, the Elysium Fields is accessed through a portal in Persephone's garden, and sits at the bottom of the pillar that holds the world above Hades.
• In L.A. Noire, Elysian Fields is an antagonistic organisation involved with property development.
• The Last Remnant makes several references. Elysion being the name of a weapon, Remnant, and most prominently, a city; "Home of the Congress and the Sacred Lands, Elysion is generally considered the heart of the continent. Its long history gives it a unique flavor, both modern and historic."
• In Mass Effect, Elysium is a human colony in the Skyllian Verge.
• In Megaman Legends 2, Elysium is the name of an artificial planet where the ancient humans lived for thousands years.
• In Megaman X5, Megaman X´s dream is to create a future utopia, where war and suffering are non-existent and the human race and the Reploids live in peace. This utopia is named Elysium. Appears it in one the 3 endings of the game.
• In the game Rise of the Argonauts in a re-telling of the Classic "Jason and the Golden Fleece" in RPG form, Elysium is where the virtuous are sent and Jason must obtain the fleece to bring his Wife back from the Dead.
• In RuneScape, an Elysian Spirit Shield is available to players.
• Elysium is the domain of Persephone, the goddess of Life, in Sacrifice.
• In Saints Row 2, there is neighborhood called Elysian Fields located in the Trailer Park distract of Stilwater near the Suburbs. The entire neighborhood is a trailer park and is a stronghold of the Sons of Samedi who use several Mobile homes as Loa Dust drug labs, which The Protagonist must destroy during the Elysian Fields Trailer Park stronghold mission, in order to take control of the neighborhood. It is located next to Mourning Wood Cemetery, which is somewhat ironic (possibly intentional on the developer's part) given the Elysian Fields being the final resting place of virtuous souls in Greek mythology.
• In Soul Calibur V, Elysium is an unlockable character resembling series veteran Sophitia Alexandra. According to the game's story, she is the spirit of the titular weapon, Soul Calibur. She is a mimic character, capable of using the fighting styles and weapons of all the games female characters.
• Titan Quest's expansion Immortal Throne takes place in the Greek underworld, with one significant section taking place in Elysium itself. The player must defend Elysium from the enemy daemon army and is aided by several well known Greek heroes.
• In Vampire: The Masquerade Elysium is the status of a place or a meeting, where vampires are not allowed to harm each other, hence carrying weapons and using disciplines is prohibited.
• In Dust: An Elysian Tail Elysium is the home of The Five Blades of Elysium.

Companies

Numerous companies globally have adopted the Elysium name as part of their brand:

• Elysium Inc. – a provider of 3D CAD/CAM systems ()
• Elysium Creative – a web agency with offices in the US and Canada ()
• Elysium Productions – a wedding videography firm from Los Angeles()

References