locus amoenus
Idealized pastoral setting
Locus amoenus is a Latin phrase meaning "pleasant place"—a literary term for an idealized natural setting of beauty and tranquility.
The convention appears throughout Western literature: a shaded grove, a gentle stream, birdsong and soft grass.
It's the pastoral backdrop where lovers meet, poets compose, and characters find temporary refuge from the world's troubles.
The garden functioned as a locus amoenus in medieval romance.
- paradiseIdeal, blissful place
- pastoralOf countryside or clergy care
- sacred groveWoodland deemed divine
- ElysiumGreek afterlife for heroes
- ecloguePastoral dialogue poem
meadow · peace · escapism · grove · idyll · golden age · Arcadia · garden · Virgil · Eden · bucolic · pleasance · harmony · stream · joy · nostalgia · valley · refuge
- pastoralshepherds, shepherd, shepherdess, flocks, meadows
- pastoral poetrypastoral, eclogue, idyll, bucolic, Spenser
- Paradisesparadise, Eden, Garden of Eden, utopia, Shangri-La
locus amoenuswasteland
Uninhabitable barren region
hellscape · wilderness · desert · desolate landscape · scorched earth
locus amoenusfallen world
Theologically corrupted earthly realm
inferno · hell · purgatory · underworld · Hades
locus amoenusindustrial landscape
Factory-filled terrain view
concrete jungle · slum · strip mine · urban decay · slag heap
local, location, amiable, locale, allocate, amorous, locomotion, amenity, locus