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What were the purported ambrosia and NECTAR consumed by the Greek Gods that sustained their immortality? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by cheese_greater@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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EDITED: Nectar/drink = mead? Ambrosia/food = ?/manna?

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[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I didn't hear about Greek gods consuming amber, only ambrosia and nectar. Translation/language issue perhaps? There is no explanation for what thing ambrosia is as far as I know. I've always imagined it as something that looks like crystalline pumpkin preserve or something, possibly because the word ambrosia does remind me a lot of amber though.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (4 children)

the word ambrosia does remind me a lot of amber though.

It's coincidental - the word "amber" backtracks to Middle Persian 'nbl (anbal) getting borrowed into Arabic as عَنْبَر (ʕanbar), then finding its Mediaeval Latin as ambar, then Middle French as ambre, then English. Initially it referred only to ambergris (the whale stuff, aka "grey amber"), but eventually people started using the word to refer to the resinous tree substance ("yellow amber") too.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah but it doesn't share its root with ambrosia.

The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient Indo-European languages: Greek and Sanskrit. The Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosia) is semantically linked to the Sanskrit 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"[20] (n-: negative prefix from which the prefix a- in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived; mṛ: zero grade of *mer-, "to die"; and -to-: adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for nectar, the beverage of the gods (Greek: νέκταρ néktar) presumed to be a compound of the PIE roots *nek-, "death", and -*tar, "overcoming".

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yup, it doesn't.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah sorry I noticed too late that you weren't suggesting they did. Some days I'll argue even the date, I need to touch more grass.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

No worries! This sort of stuff happens. (Blame Godzilla!)

Plus you added a lot of info to the discussion.

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