Paradise

The Greek word παραδεισος (paradeisos) first appears in the writings of Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BC), for instance in his ‘Anabasis’ (c.370 BC), where the author refers to the park attached to Cyrus the Younger’s palace at Celaenae near the sauce of the Maeander river in Phrygia. Cyrus was the brother of ‘the great king’, King Artaxerxes II of Persia. The park is described as being full of wild beasts which Cyrus hunted on horseback whenever he wanted to exercise himself and his horses.

Xenophon would have taken the word from the Old Persian pairidaeza, also meaning ‘park’, which was made up of the words pairi ‘around’ and diz ‘to shape’. The royal park with its pleasure grounds and extensive domain for hunting was shaped around the royal palace. It was an enclosure. Xenophon probably knew some Persian and in coming up with παραδεισος may have heard an echo of the Greek verb παραδεω meaning ‘to fasten to or alongside’. Of course, there was as yet no connotation of our paradise meaning ‘heaven’. If there had been, Xenophon could have punned fruitfully with the Greek phrase παρα Δι(ι) – pronounced paradi(s) – which can be translated as ‘chez Zeus’!