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ambrosial

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ambrosial  Adjective

1. ambrosíaco, delicioso; Synonyms: delicious, delightful, tasty, very tasty, appetizing, delectable, exquisite; Extremely pleasing to the taste; sweet and fragrant.
A nectarous drink.
Ambrosial food.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In ancient Greek mythology, 'ambrosia' is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the gods, often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves (Odyssey xii.62), so may have been thought of in the Homeric tradition as a kind of divine exhalation of the Earth. Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, [[Nectar#Etymology|nectar]]. The two terms may not have originally been distinguished; though in Homer's poems nectar is the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh" (Iliad xiv.170), and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep (Odyssey xviii.188ff) so that when she appeared for the final time before her suitors, the effect of the years had been stripped away and they were inflamed at the sight of her. On the other hand, in Alcman, nectar is the food, and in Sappho (fragment 45) and Anaxandrides, ambrosia is the drink. When a character in Aristophanes' [[The Knights|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 nectar and ambrosia are fragrant, and may be used as perfume: in [[Odyssey]] (iv.444-46) 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 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, medicine and botany. Additionally, some modern scholars, such as Danny Staples, relate ambrosia to the hallucinogenic mushroom [[Amanita muscaria]].

* This article uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License

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* English Definitions From: WordNet 2.0 Copyright 2003 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

* Spanish Definitions Copyright 2003-2008 Zirano

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