Nectar (mythology)

Sweet size of 1793, work by Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) from a drawing by John Flaxman, employed in an edition of the Iliad 1795: Hebe serves to nectar the gods.

In Greek mythology, nectar (in ancient Greek νέκταρ) was, according to the first poets such as Homer or Ovid, the wine or drink of the gods, which was served by Hebe or Ganymede, and which was described as red in color. Like the wine of mortals, it was mixed with water when it was to be drunk, and the wine that Odysseus had brought with him was called by Polyphemus "cream of nectar" (ἀποῤῥὼξ νέκταρος, Odyssey ix.359).

Although nectar was usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods, it is believed that originally both terms were not differentiated. On the other hand, in Alcman's work nectar was the food, and in those of Sappho and Anaxandridas ambrosia was the drink. Later writers sometimes understood by nectar an aromatic balm that prevented the decomposition of organic bodies, for in fact—even in Homer (Iliad xix.39)—Thetis prevented Patroclus's body from becoming corrupted by anointing it. with ambrosia and nectar.

According to W. H. Röscher (Nektar und Ambrosia, 1883; see also his article in the Lexikon der Mythologie) nectar and ambrosia were originally nothing more than different forms of the same substance: honey, considered as dew, as manna fallen from heaven, which was used as food and drink.

Nectar is also mentioned in Hindu mythology, specifically in the Upanishadas and Puranas under the name Amrita.

Fonts

• Homer, Iliad iv.3; Odyssey v.93, 195 et seq.
• Ovid, Metamorphosis x.161