Ambrosia and nectar, supposed to be the divine food consumed by the Greek gods, appears in the Homeric Poems as ointment, used as cosmetic to clean and care for the bodies of gods and mortals, as well as a substance preventing decomposition of dead bodies. Ambrosia was used both externally by application on the skin, as well as internally, along with nectar, in embalming processes. Although it is not possible to describe the composition and properties of ambrosia more specifically, in Homeric Poems, all references to ambrosia (noun and adjective) together with elaion, put the question of the early knowledge of the properties of elaion in general. From the several uses of elaion described in Homeric scenes, it is clear that the specific qualities attributed to elaion relate it with the immortal gods, not only symbolically, but also practically, through “divine” characteristics it could transmit to the mortals. The early knowledge of its qualities, at the time, definitively empirical, is confirmed by recent scientific research and explains many of the uses of various kinds of elaion during the past decades and, in some cases, even today.
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Zanni, D.G. (2008). Ambrosia, Nectar and Elaion in the Homeric Poems. In: Paipetis, S.A. (eds) Science and Technology in Homeric Epics. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8784-4_31
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