Ambrosia
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/* Etymology */
{{Otherusesabout|the food or drink of the gods}}
In ancient [[Greek mythology]], '''''ambrosia''''' is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the [[Greek gods|gods]], often depicted as conferring ageless [[immortality]] upon whomever consumes it. It was brought to the gods in [[Olympus]] by doves (''Odyssey'' xii.62), so may have been thought of in the Homeric tradition as a kind of divine exhalation of the Earth.
Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, ''[[Nectar#Etymology|nectar]]''. The two terms may not have originally been distinguished;<ref>"Attempts to draw any significant distinctions between the functions of nectar and ambrosia have failed," concludes Jenny Strauss Clay (Clay, "Immortal and ageless forever" ''The Classical Journal'' '''77'''.2 [December 1981:pp. 112-117] p. 114).</ref> though in [[Homer]]'s poems nectar is the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh" (''Iliad'' xiv.170), and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep (''Odyssey'' xviii.188ff) so that when she appeared for the final time before her suitors, the effect of the years had been stripped away and they were inflamed at the sight of her. On the other hand, in [[Alcman]], nectar is the food, and in [[Sappho]] (fragment 45) and [[Anaxandrides]],<ref>When Anaxandrides says "I eat nectar and drink ambrosia", F. A. Wright ("The Food of the Gods", ''The Classical Review'' '''31'''.1 (February 1917:4-6) p 5) suggested he was using comic inversion.</ref> ambrosia is the drink. When a character in [[Aristophanes]]' ''[[The Knights|Knights]]'' says, "I dreamed the goddess poured ambrosia over your head— out of a ladle", the homely and realistic ladle brings the ineffable moment to ground with a thump.
Both nectar and ambrosia are fragrant, and may be used as [[perfume]]: in ''[[Odyssey]]'' (iv.444-46) Menelaus and his men are disguised as seals in untanned seal skins, "and the deadly smell of the seal skins vexed us sore; but the goddess saved us; she brought ambrosia and put it under our nostrils." Homer speaks of ambrosial raiment, ambrosial locks of hair, even the gods' ambrosial sandals.
Among later writers, ''ambrosia'' has been so often used with generic meanings of "delightful liquid" that such late writers as [[Athenaeus]], [[Paulus]] and [[Dioscurides]] employ it as a technical terms in contexts of cookery,<ref>In Athenaeus, a sauce of oil, water and fruit juice.</ref> medicine<ref>In Paulus, a medicinal draught.</ref> and botany.<ref>Dioscurides remarked its Latin name was ''ros marinus'', "sea-dew", or [[rosemary]]; these uses were noted by Wright 1917:6.</ref>
Additionally, some modern scholars, such as [[Danny Staples]], relate ambrosia to the [[Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants|hallucinogenic]] mushroom ''[[Amanita muscaria]]''.
== Etymology ==
The connection that has derived ''ambrosia'' from the Greek prefix ''a-'' ("not") and the word ''mbrotos'' ("mortal"), hence the food or drink of the immortals, has been found merely coincidental by modern linguists.<ref>So noted by Wright 1917:6</ref>
The classical scholar [[Arthur Woollgar Verrall]] denied that there is any clear example in which the word ''ambrosios'' necessarily means ''immortal'', and preferred to explain it as "fragrant," a sense which is always suitable. If so, the word may be derived from the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] ''MBR'', giving "[[amber]]", which when burned is resinously fragrant (compare "[[ambergris]]") to which Eastern nations attribute miraculous properties. In Europe, honey-colored amber, sometimes far from its natural source, was already a grave gift in [[Neolithic]] times and was still worn in the [[7th century]] as a talisman by [[Druidry|druidic]] [[Frisia]]ns, though St. [[Eligius]] warned "No woman should presume to hang amber from her neck."
[[W. H. Roscher]] thinks that both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of [[honey]], in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing power of honey, which is in fact anti-septic, and because fermented honey ([[mead]]) preceded [[wine]] as an [[entheogen]] in the Aegean world: on some Minoan seals goddesses had [[bee]] faces: compare [[Merope]] and [[Melissa]].
[[Propolis]], a hive product, cures sore throats, and there are many modern proprietary medicines which use honey as an ingredient. <!--honey products too far from "ambrosia"Furthermore the suitability of Somerset for Apple fruit growing also entails its excellence for nectar and pollen foraging by bees.
Thus Ambrose and Avalon are inextricably linked.-->
== Examples of ambrosia in mythology ==
*In one version of the story of the birth of [[Achilles]], [[Thetis]] anoints the infant with ambrosia and passes the child through the fire to make him immortal—a familiar [[Phoenicia]]n custom—but [[Peleus]], appalled, stops her, leaving only his heel unimmortalised.
*In the ''[[Iliad]]'' xvi, [[Apollo]] washes the black blood from the corpse of [[Sarpedon]] and anoints it with ambrosia, readying it for its dreamlike return to Sarpedon's native [[Lycia]]. Similarly, [[Thetis]] anoints the corpse of [[Patroclus]] in order to preserve it. Additionally, both ambrosia and nectar are depicted as [[unguent]]s (xiv. 170; xix. 38). The wax of bees has always been used as the finest perfume, and an excellent healing for skin ailments, and for lighting holy places; Avalon and Ambrose.
*In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]] is described as having "spread a table with ambrosia and set it by [[Hermes]], and mixed the rosy-red nectar." It is ambiguous whether he means the ambrosia itself is rosy-red, or if he is describing a rosy-red nectar Hermes drinks along with the ambrosia. Later, [[Circe]] mentions to [[Odysseus]]<ref>''Odyssey'' xi: "the trembling doves that carry ambrosia to Father Zeus."</ref> that a flock of doves are the bringers of ambrosia to [[Olympus]].
*One of the impieties of [[Tantalus]], according to [[Pindar]], was that he offered to his guests the ambrosia of the Deathless Ones, a theft akin to that of [[Prometheus]], [[Karl Kerenyi]] noted (in ''Heroes of the Greeks'').
*In the [[Homeric hymn]] to [[Aphrodite]], the goddess uses "ambrosian oil" as perfume, "divinely sweet, and made fragrant for her sake."
==See also==
*[[Ichor]], blood of the Greek gods, related to ambrosia.
*[[Amrita]], of [[Hindu]] mythology, a drink which confers immortality on the gods, and a [[cognate]] of ambrosia
*[[Elixir of life]], a potion sought by [[alchemy]] to produce immortality.
==References==
{{reflist}}
*[[Carl A. P. Ruck|Ruck, Carl A.P.]] and [[Danny Staples]], ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994, p. 26 et seq. [http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/world_of.html]
*[http://47.1911encyclopedia.org/A/AM/AMBROSIA.htm ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 1911]: Ambrosia
[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Fictional beverages]]
[[Category:Mythological substances]]
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