AMBROSIA, in the Heathen Theology, &c. a delicious kind of Food, whereon the Gods were supposed to feed. See FOOD. Lucian, rallying these poetical Gods, tells us, that Ambrosia and Nectar, of which one is the Meat, and the other the Drink of the Gods, were not so excellent as the Poets describe them; since they would leave them for Blood and Fat, which they come to suck from the Altars like Flies. The Word is compounded of the Privative Particle α, and βροτός, Mortal; in regard it rendered those who fed thereon immortal, or was the Food of the Immortals.
