AMBROSIA

AMBROSIA. - A Greek word meaning “immortal”: it is used together with “nectar” to denote the food of the gods. In the Iliad it has a broader meaning; it is the food of the horses of the gods, an ointment that preserves corpses from decay or heals wounds, etc. Homer always joins a. and nectar as, for mortals, he joins food and drink: hence an uncertainty in the interpretation of the two words. In general, a. is the food and nectar the divine drink, more rarely the reverse. Hellenistic antiquarians and some modern scholars have identified a. and nectar with honey, but in general the hypothesis is rejected. A. and nectar were divine food, reserved for the gods, invented by Demeter or issuing from the horns of the goat Amalthea. In the Odyssey Calypso feeds on them, whereas Ulysses was served human food. Only by special favor is it granted to mortals, to whom it confers immortality.