AMBROSIA

AMBROSIA. - A Greek word meaning “im-
mortality”: it is used together with “nectar” to indi-
cate the food of the gods. In the *Iliad* it has a more
extended meaning; it is the food of the horses of the gods, an ointment that preserves corpses from corruption or heals wounds, etc. Homer always joins a. and n. as, for mortals, he joins food and drink: hence an un-
certainty in the interpretation of the two words. In ge-
neral a. is the food and n. the divine drink, more rarely the opposite. Hellenistic antiquarians and some moderns have identified a. and n. with honey, but the hypothesis is generally rejected. A. and n. were divine food, reserved for the gods, invented by Demeter or issuing from the horns of the goat Amalthea. In the *Odyssey* Calypso partakes of it, while Odysseus is served the foods of mortals. Only by special grace is it granted to mortals, to whom it confers immortality.