Elissa: The Elder Sister in The Faerie Queene

Elissa is a character in book 2 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. She is the elder sister of Medina and Perissa, and she represents an extreme of being a total downer, i.e. not enjoying anything at all.

This makes sense when you consider that her name means “too little” or “inferior” in Greek.

See our complete list of Arthurian characters for more entries like this one.

Arthurian Bibliography

• Norris Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, Debra Mancoff – The Arthurian Handbook (Second Edition)
• Alan Lupack – The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend
• Ronan Coghlan – The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Arthurian Legends
• Anonymous – Lancelot-Grail, the French Vulgate
• Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur