Editing Ambrosia (section)

==Definition==
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." Clay, p. 114.</ref> though in [[Homer]]'s poems nectar is usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia that Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh",<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' xiv.170</ref> and with ambrosia Athena prepared [[Penelope]] in her sleep,<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' xviii.188ff</ref> so that when she appeared for the final time before her suitors, the effects of years had been stripped away, and they were inflamed with passion at the sight of her. On the other hand, in [[Alcman]],<ref>[[Alcman]], fragment 42</ref> nectar is the food, and in [[Sappho]]<ref>[[Sappho]], fragment 141 LP</ref> and [[Anaxandrides]], ambrosia is the drink.<ref>When Anaxandrides says "I eat nectar and drink ambrosia", though, Wright, p. 5, suggested he was using comic inversion.</ref> A character in [[Aristophanes]]' ''[[The Knights|Knights]]'' says, "I dreamed the goddess poured ambrosia over your head—out of a ladle." Both descriptions could be correct, as ambrosia could be a liquid considered a food (such as [[honey]]).

The consumption of ambrosia was typically reserved for divine beings. Upon his assumption into immortality on Olympus, [[Heracles]] is given ambrosia by [[Athena]], while the hero [[Tydeus]] is denied the same thing when the goddess discovers him eating human brains. In one version of the myth of [[Tantalus]], part of Tantalus' crime is that after tasting ambrosia himself, he attempts to steal some to give to other mortals.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Olympian Odes'' 1. 50. ff.</ref> Those who consume ambrosia typically have [[ichor]], not blood, in their veins.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' v. 340, 416.</ref>

Both nectar and ambrosia are fragrant, and may be used as [[perfume]]: in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' 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."<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' iv.444–446</ref> 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]], [[Paul of Aegina|Paulus]] and [[Dioscurides]] employ it as a technical term in contexts of cookery,<ref name="ReferenceA">In Athenaeus, a sauce of oil, water and fruit juice.</ref> medicine,<ref name="In Paulus, a medicinal draught">In Paulus, a medicinal draught.</ref> and botany.<ref name="ReferenceB">Dioscurides remarked its Latin name was {{lang|la|ros marinus}}, "sea-dew", or [[rosemary]]; these uses were noted by Wright 1917:6.</ref> [[Pliny's Natural History|Pliny]] used the term in connection with different plants, as did early herbalists.<ref name=Chambers>"Ambrosia" in ''[[Chambers's Encyclopædia]]''. London: [[George Newnes Ltd|George Newnes]], 1961, Vol. 1, p. 315.</ref>

Additionally, some modern [[Ethnomycology|ethnomycologists]], such as [[Danny Staples]], identify ambrosia with the [[Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants|hallucinogenic]] mushroom ''[[Amanita muscaria]]'': "it was the food of the gods, their ambrosia, and nectar was the pressed sap of its juices", Staples asserts.<ref name="ReferenceC">Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994:26.</ref>

[[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 powers of honey,<ref name=EB1911/> and because fermented honey ([[mead]]) preceded [[wine]] as an [[entheogen]] in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with [[bee]] faces (compare [[Merope (Pleiades)|Merope]] and [[Melissa]]).