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In the ancient Greek myths, ''ambrosia'' ((ギリシア語:ἀμβροσία, "immortality")) is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves,〔Homer, ''Odyssey'' xii.62〕 so it may have been thought of in the Homeric tradition as a kind of divine exhalation of the Earth. ''Ambrosia'' is sometimes depicted in ancient art as distributed by a nymph labeled with that name.〔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.〕 In the myth of Lycurgus, an opponent to the wine god Dionysus, violence committed against Ambrosia turns her into a grapevine. ==Definition== Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, ''nectar''. The two terms may not have originally been distinguished;〔"Attempts to draw any significant distinctions between the functions of nectar and ambrosia have failed." Clay, p. 114.〕 though in Homer's poems nectar is usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh",〔Homer, ''Iliad'' xiv.170〕 and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep,〔Homer, ''Odyssey'' xviii.188ff〕 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,〔Alcman, fragment 42〕 sector is the food, and in Sappho〔Sappho, fragment 141 LP〕 and Anaxandrides, ambrosia is the drink.〔When Anaxandrides says "I eat nectar and drink ambrosia", Wright, p. 5, suggested he was using comic inversion.〕 When a character in Aristophanes' ''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 descriptions, however, could be correct as Ambrosia could be a liquid that is considered a meal (much like how soup is labeled the same). 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 away to give to other mortals.〔Pindar, ''Olympian Odes'' 1. 50. ff.〕 Those who consume ambrosia typically had not blood in their veins, but ichor.〔Homer, ''Iliad'' v. 340, 416.〕 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."〔Homer, ''Odyssey'' iv.444–46〕 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,〔In Athenaeus, a sauce of oil, water and fruit juice.〕 medicine,〔In Paulus, a medicinal draught.〕 and botany.〔Dioscurides remarked its Latin name was ''ros marinus'', "sea-dew", or rosemary; these uses were noted by Wright 1917:6.〕 Pliny used the term in connection with different plants, as did early herbalists.〔"Ambrosia" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 315.〕 Additionally, some modern ethnomycologists, such as Danny Staples, identify ambrosia with the hallucinogenic mushroom ''Amanita muscaria'': "it was the food of the gods, their ambrosia, and nectar was the pressed sap of its juices", Staples asserts.〔Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994:26.〕 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, 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 were represented with bee faces (compare Merope and Melissa). Propolis, a hive product also known for its sweet fruity taste, is used as a remedy for sore throats, and there are many modern proprietary medicines which use honey as an ingredient. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ambrosia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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