HAUPT— MANNA, NECTAR, AND AMBROSIA. 229 



about 650) nectar is the food, and in Sappho (who flourished about 

 600, and who shared with Alcasus the supremacy of the .^ohan school 

 of lyric poetry) ambrosia is the drink. 



It would seem, however, that both nectar and ambrosia denote 

 fragrant fat, especially the nidorous smell of the sacrifices ascending 

 to heaven. The fragrant steam arising from a burning sacrifice was 

 the nourishment of the gods. Ethereal beings feed on vapors, not on 

 solid meats.® The Old Testament says that an offering made by fire 

 yields a sweet savor to Jhvh. For Let the Lord accept an offering 

 (i S 26, 19) the Hebrew has Let the Lord smell (or inhale) an 

 offering. In Lev. 26, 31 Jhvh says: / will not smell the savor of 

 your sweet odors. When Noah after the Flood offered burnt-offer- 

 ings, the Lord smelled the sweet savor, and the cuneiform account of 

 the Deluge states that when the Babylonian Noah offered a sacrifice, 

 the gods gathered around him like a swarm of flies, so that the god- 

 dess Istar took the great fly-brushes of her father Anu, the god of 

 heaven, to drive them away. Fly-brushes are the ancient Oriental 

 symbols of sovereignty. The gods were starved because there had 

 been no offerings during the Flood (JAOS 41, 181). 



The Hebrew term for the fragrant svnoke of the burnt-offering is 

 qetort^, and nectar seems to be derived from the same Semitic stem, 

 just as it has been suggested that ambrosia may represent the Semitic 

 'ambar, ambergris (EB^^ i, 800"; AJSL 23, 261; PAPS 46, 158). 

 Ambergris is a morbid secretion of the intestines of the sperm-whale. 

 It is a fatty, inflammable substance which develops a peculiar sweet 

 odor on exposure to the air. It plays an important part in Oriental 

 perfumery and is used also in pharmacy and in cookery. I have 

 shown in my paper on Jonah's Whale, which I presented at our Gen- 

 eral Meeting in 1907, that there were sperm-whales in the Mediter- 

 ranean (PAPS 46, 155; JHUC 296, 37.43). Gr. thyos and thyoma 

 are equivalent to Heb. qctorj, and both are connected with our fume, 

 as is also thysia, and tethyomenos means fragrant. Similarly Heb. 

 mequttar signifies perfumed in Cant. 3, 6. AV uses perfume for 

 qct6rt_ (JBL 36, 91, n. 11) in Exod. 30, 35. 



^ See the translation of Leviticus, in the Polychrome Bible, p. 62, 1. 2; p. 

 63, 1. 15. 



