Gustave Doré Empyrean TapestryOriginal engraving The Divine Comedy's Empyrean, illustrated by Gustave Dor, 1850. In ancient European cosmologies inspired by Aristotle, the Empyrean was the place in the highest heaven, which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philosophy). The word derives from the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek empyros (), meaning "in or on the fire (pyr)". In Christian religious