Principal Question Six of Chapter Three
On the Elysian Fields according to the opinion of the pagans
In this sole question concerning the Elysian Fields—the fifth abode of souls after death, namely of philosophers, poets, and Muhammadans—it is doubted where such a place of the Elysian Fields is and what delights are found there.
To this question it is briefly answered that the Elysian Fields—that is, the fields of delights—are in the midst of the lower regions, in which the pious souls of philosophers, poets, and Muhammadans rest after their separation from the body.
Hence Virgil, beyond the middle of Book VI, says concerning the Elysian Fields:
These things at last accomplished, the goddess’s service fulfilled, They came to joyful places and pleasant lawns, The dwellings of fortunate groves and blessed seats.
And below he says:
Meanwhile Aeneas sees, in a withdrawn valley, A secluded grove and thickets sounding with woods, And Lethe, and peaceful homes, and so forth.
There Aeneas finds the soul of his father Anchises.
The philosophers said that Elysium was in forests or in the Fortunate Isles. Hence Horace in an Epode:
The all-wandering Ocean awaits us; let us seek The blessed fields, the rich fields and islands, Where every year the unplowed earth renders grain, And the unpruned vine flowers without end.
Pliny also relates many things concerning these in Book VI of the Natural History. Sallust in the Histories said that these islands were renowned in the songs of Homer.
There were also those who wrote that Elysium was around the lunar circle, where the air is purer. Hence Virgil in Book VI: “In the fields of air,” and so forth. Lucan says:
Whatever lies open between the courses of the moon, Those possessed of gold, nor those buried with incense, Do not arrive there.
In these Elysian Fields as Lord William of Paris says, and as is placed in the Alcoran—that is, in the book of the laws of Muhammad—there are delights of bodily feasts, with angelic stewards and cupbearers. There are precious garments, the pleasantness of canopies, and the blandishments of women and of delights. There are rivers of milk, wine, and honey, every kind of delightful food, drink, odor, flavor, and sound, and every sweetness and softness of tangible things. Muhammad promises all these things to the observers of his law.
These things are from Henry of Hesse upon Genesis.
Addition
Certain persons report that there are nine abodes of souls among the lower regions, which John Ravisius enumerates. The last of these is the Elysian Field, the paradise of the ancients. Concerning it Homer says:
Heaven is my fatherland; Calliope is my mother.
He also described the Elysian Fields among the Greeks, as did Orpheus; from them our poet Virgil drew his description in Book VI.
These fields are also those Fortunate Isles, as Pliny reports in Book VI, chapter 32. Berosus comprehended both their number and their extent, asserting that they are situated in the southern Ocean near the setting of the sun.
In the first of them, whose name is Ombrior, there are no buildings, nor have there been any. Fennels rise there to the height of a tree; water is pressed from them—bitter from the black ones and pleasant to drink from the whiter ones. The mountain ridges are wet with pools.
They report that another island is called Junonia and that on it there is a small shrine built only of stone. A third, next to this, has the same name. Then comes Capraria, filled with great lizards.
In sight of these is Nivaria, cloudy, which received this name from its perpetual snow. Nearest to it is Canaria, full of dogs of enormous size. They abound plentifully in every kind of fruit and bird. They report that these islands also abound in palms bearing caryota dates, pine nuts, honey and fish. And, as Pomponius writes in his final book, they abound in things born of their own accord more happily than other cultivated cities.
One of two springs is especially remarkable. Whoever tastes the one is dissolved in laughter unto death; the remedy is to drink from the other.
Moreover, they are so fertile, the seasons there are so free from envy, and conversation is so sweet that pagan error believed, on account of the fertility of the soil alone, that these islands were Paradise.
But although they erred in manner and place, they nevertheless acknowledge from these things that happiness and a certain blessed life are reserved for perfect men.
Hence Aristotle says in On Heaven and the World: “Outside heaven there is nothing; for in heaven are beings leading the best life.”
Add that the author relates all these things according to the opinion of the pagans. For they differ from the Catholic faith, but the author narrates them so that we may see the foolishness of the pagans.