Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/366

58 as eating nectar and drinking ambrosia; Sappho describes how "he brewed a bowl of ambrosia, and Hermes took the flask to act as cup-bearer to the gods." The Greeks then believed that the gods ate and drank a substance called ambrosia, that is "Immortality," because it was the principle of immortality. "Whatever did not taste of nectar and ambrosia became mortal," such, Aristotle says in his Metaphysics, was the view of the poets; but he, taking the same view as the modern interpreter of myths, treats it as pure invention on the part of the poets, "for, he argues, how could the gods be eternal, if they needed food?" The poets, however, were right, and they prove to be the better historians; Indian literature bears witness to them.

The ceremonial drink of India was Soma; the preparation of it was an important part of Vedic ritual; I need not dwell on a fact so familiar to any one who has read about Indian religion. I only want to draw attention to one small but important detail. Another common name of soma is amrita, which means immortal; amrita is the same word as the Greek ambrotos, of which ambrosia is the substantive. It is called the "immortal draught," because in the words of Prof. A. A. MacDonell, "Soma is the stimulant which confers immortality upon the gods Soma also awakens eager thought, and the worshippers of the god exclaim, 'We have drunk soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods. Thus it appears that ambrosia is not a fiction of the poets, but a real beverage which was drunk at the