Editing Ambrosia

{{Short description|Mythical food of the Greek gods}}
{{Other uses}}
{{wikt | ambrosia}}
[[File:WLANL - MicheleLovesArt - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - Istoriato schotel, de maaltijd der Goden op de Olympus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The Food of the Gods on Olympus'' (1530), [[Maiolica|majolica]] dish attributed to [[Nicola da Urbino]]]]

In the ancient [[Greek mythology|Greek myths]], '''ambrosia''' ({{IPAc-en|æ|m|ˈ|b|r|oʊ|z|i|ə|,_|-|ʒ|ə}}, {{langx|grc|ἀμβροσία 'immortality'}}) is the food or drink of the [[Greek gods]],<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Ambrosia |volume=1 |page=800}}</ref> and is often depicted as conferring [[longevity]] or [[immortality]] upon whoever consumed it.<ref name="OCD">{{Citation  | last = Griffiths  | first = Alan H.  | contribution = Ambrosia  | year = 1996  | title = Oxford Classical Dictionary  | editor1-last = Hornblower  | editor1-first = Simon  | editor1-link = Simon Hornblower  | editor2-last = Spawforth  | editor2-first = Anthony  | edition = 3rd  | place = Oxford  | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]  | isbn = 0-19-521693-8| title-link = Oxford Classical Dictionary }}</ref> It was brought to the gods in [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]] by [[doves]] and served either by [[Hebe (mythology)|Hebe]] or by [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]] at the [[Feast of the Gods (art) | heavenly feast]].<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' xii.62</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title= De Natura Deorum|last=Cicero|pages=1.40}}</ref>

Ancient art sometimes depicted ambrosia as distributed by the [[nymph]] named [[Ambrosia (Hyades) | Ambrosia]], a nurse of [[Dionysus]].<ref>
Ruth E. Leader-Newby, ''Silver and Society in Late Antiquity: Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries'' (Ashgate, 2004), p. 133; Christine Kondoleon, ''Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos'' (Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 246; Katherine M. D. Dunbabin, ''Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 136, 142, 276–277.
</ref>

==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]]).

== Etymology ==
The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]] languages: Greek and [[Sanskrit]]. The Greek ἀμβροσία (''ambrosia'') is semantically linked to the Sanskrit {{lang|sa|अमृत}} (''[[amṛta]]'') as both words denote a drink or food that gods use to achieve immortality. The two words appear to be derived from the same Indo-European form *''ṇ-mṛ-tós'', "un-dying"<ref name="eiec">{{Cite encyclopedia |first1=J. P. |last1=Mallory |editor1-first=J. P. |editor1-last=Mallory |editor2-first=Douglas Q. |editor2-last=Adams |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]] |title=Sacred drink |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1997 |page=538}} Mallory also connects to this root an Avestan word, and notes that the root is "dialectally restricted to the IE southeast".</ref> (''n-'': negative prefix from which the prefix ''a-'' in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived; ''mṛ'': [[Ablaut|zero grade]] of *''mer-'', "to die"; and ''-to-'': adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for [[Nectar#Etymology|nectar]], the beverage of the gods (Greek: νέκταρ ''néktar'') presumed to be a compound of the [[Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]] roots ''*nek-'', "death", and ''-*tar'', "overcoming".

== Other examples in mythology ==
[[File:Johann Balthasar Probst 002.jpg|thumb|Thetis anoints Achilles with ambrosia, by [[Johann Balthasar Probst]] (1673–1748)]]
* 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 but [[Peleus]], appalled, stops her, leaving only his heel unimmortalised (''[[Argonautica]]'' 4.869–879).
* In the ''[[Iliad]]'' xvi, [[Apollo]] washes the black blood from the corpse of [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|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. Ambrosia and nectar are depicted as [[unguent]]s (xiv. 170; xix. 38).
* 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'' xii.62: "the trembling doves that carry ambrosia to Father Zeus."</ref> that a flock of doves are the bringers of ambrosia to [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]].
* In the ''Odyssey'' (ix.345–359), [[Polyphemus]] likens the wine given to him by [[Odysseus]] to ambrosia and nectar.
* 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'').<ref>{{cite book |last=Kerényi |first=Carl |title=Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence |url={{GBurl|ouOmOC6Z1HkC|p=42}} |page=42 }}</ref>
* In the [[Homeric hymn]] to [[Aphrodite]], the goddess uses "ambrosial bridal oil that she had ready perfumed."<ref>{{cite book|last1=West|first1=Martin L.|title=Homeric hymns; Homeric apocrypha; Lives of Homer|date=2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780674996069|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/homerichymnshome0000home}}</ref>
* In the story of ''[[Eros and Psyche]]'' as told by [[Apuleius]], Psyche is given ambrosia upon her completion of the quests set by [[Aphrodite (mythology)|Aphrodite]] and her acceptance on Olympus.  After she partakes, she and Eros are wed as gods.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Esoteric Codex: Magic Objects I|last=Rogers|first=Mark|year=2014|publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1312114562}}</ref>
* In the ''[[Aeneid]]'', [[Aeneas]] encounters his mother in an alternate, or illusory form. When she became her godly form "Her hair's ambrosia breathed a holy fragrance."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures, derived principally from the manners, customs, rites, traditions and works of art and literature, of the eastern nations|author=Harmer|author2=Burder|author3=Paxton|author4=Roberts|name-list-style=amp|publisher=[[Brattleboro Typographic Company]]|year=1839}}</ref>

==Ambrosia (nymph)==
{{Further|Lycurgus of Thrace}}
[[File:Mosaik "Wahnsinn des Lykurg" — Exponat in der Archäologischen Staatssammlung München.JPG|thumb|Lycurgus attacking the nymph Ambrosia ([[Roman mosaic|mosaic]] from [[Herculaneum]], 45–79 AD)]]
Lycurgus, king of Thrace, forbade the cult of [[Dionysus]], whom he drove from [[Thrace]], and attacked the gods' entourage when they celebrated the god. Among them was Ambrosia, who turned herself into a grapevine to hide from his wrath. Dionysus, enraged by the king's actions, drove him mad. In his fit of insanity he killed his son, whom he mistook for a stock of [[ivy]], and then himself.

== See also ==
* [[Amrita]]
* [[Elixir of life]], a potion sought by alchemy to produce immortality
* [[Ichor]], blood of the Greek gods, related to ambrosia
* [[Iðunn]]'s apples in Norse mythology
* [[Manna]], food given by God to the Israelites
* [[Peaches of Immortality]] in Chinese mythology
* [[Pill of Immortality]]
* [[Silphium]]
* [[Soma (drink)|Soma]] and [[Haoma]], a ritual drink of importance among the early Vedic peoples and Indo-Iranians.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Clay, Jenny Strauss, "Immortal and ageless forever", ''The Classical Journal'' '''77'''.2 (December 1981:pp.&nbsp;112–117).
* [[Carl A. P. Ruck|Ruck, Carl A.P.]] and [[Danny Staples]], ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994, p.&nbsp;26 et seq. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120415105236/http://csp.org/chrestomathy/world_of.html]
* Wright, F. A., "The Food of the Gods", ''The Classical Review'' '''31'''.1, (February 1917:4–6).

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Ambrosia (beverage)}}

{{Greek religion|state=collapsed}}
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[[Category:Ancient Greek cuisine]]
[[Category:Mount Olympus]]
[[Category:Mythological medicines and drugs]]
[[Category:Mythological food and drink]]
[[Category:Immortality]]
[[Category:Thetis]]
[[Category:Achilles]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses]]