In the ancient Greek myths, ambrosia (Greek: ἀμβροσία, "immortality") is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves, so it may have been thought of in the Homeric tradition as a kind of divine exhalation of the Earth.
Ambrosia is sometimes depicted in ancient art as distributed by a nymph labeled with that name. In the myth of Lycurgus, an opponent to the wine god Dionysus, violence committed against Ambrosia turns her into a grapevine.
Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, nectar. The two terms may not have originally been distinguished; though in Homer's poems nectar is usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh", and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep, so that when she appeared for the final time before her suitors, the effects of years had been stripped away, and they were inflamed with passion at the sight of her. On the other hand, in Alcman, nectar is the food, and in Sappho and Anaxandrides, ambrosia is the drink. When a character in Aristophanes' Knights says, "I dreamed the goddess poured ambrosia over your head—out of a ladle," the homely and realistic ladle brings the ineffable moment to ground with a thump. Both descriptions, however, could be correct as Ambrosia could be a liquid that is considered a meal (much like how soup is labeled the same).
Ambrosia is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the gods of Greek mythology.
Ambrosia may also refer to:
Ambrosia is a brand of food products in the United Kingdom. Its original product was a dried milk powder for infants, but it is now mostly known for its custard and rice pudding. The brand plays on the fact that it is made in Devon, England (at a factory in Lifton), with their original strapline "Devon knows how they make it so creamy".
The Ambrosia creamery was founded in 1917 by Albert Morris, in his home village of Lifton in Devon, to make a rich food for infants. He took milk from local farms, where most of the cows were the Red Ruby breed, and dried it with roller dryers.
The product soon came to the attention of the British military, who took significant quantities for its soldiers, still fighting World War I.
Just prior to the World War II, the Ambrosia creamery was the first company to start making creamed rice pudding ready in a tin. Following the outbreak of war the vast majority of production was placed in Red Cross food parcels.
After the end of hostilities, Ambrosia relaunched the product, along with a creamed macaroni pudding.
A hearse is a funeral vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.
Originally considered public transportation, an elaborate framework would be erected over a coffin or tomb to which memorial verses or epitaphs were attached. It was then put on the top of horse-drawn carriages, looking much like a luggage rack. Today, the original hearse remains acknowledged by the bit of scroll work or stretched-out "S" on the side of a funeral coach, called Landau bars.
Hearses were originally horse-drawn, but silent electric motorised carts were introduced as horses began to be phased out as transportation. Examples that were used in Paris were reported in the pages of Scientific American May 1907 and petrol-driven hearses began to be produced from 1909 in the United States. Motorised hearses became more widely accepted in the 1920s. The vast majority of hearses since then have been based on larger, more powerful car chassis, generally retaining the front end up to and possibly including the front doors but with custom bodywork to the rear to contain the coffin. Some early hearses also served as ambulances, owing to the large cargo capacity in the rear of the vehicle. A few cities experimented with funeral trolley cars and/or subway cars to carry both the casket and mourners to cemeteries, but these were not popular. The only exception was Chicago, IL which operated 3 different funeral trolley cars over the elevated tracks in downtown Chicago to outlying cemeteries in the western suburbs. A special funeral bureau handled the funeral trains which sometimes operated 3-4 funeral trains a week over the 'L'.
Hearse is a Swedish melodic death metal band, founded by vocalist Johan Liiva (ex-Arch Enemy) and drummer Max Thornell in 2001. The band have released five albums to date.
Following Johan Liiva's departure from NonExist, he decided to team up with one time Furbowl bandmate Max Thornell to form a new project. The duo soon recruited guitarist Mattias Ljung, who had not actually played any metal for several years, and recorded a demo in 2001. The band's first recording was sent to select metal press and labels, and attracted interest from Hammerheart Records. After signing a contract, the first single Torch was released in 2002, and the debut album Dominion Reptilian followed in March 2003. In the summer of 2003 Hearse started recording their second album titled Armageddon, Mon Amour. It was finally released in April 2004 on Karmageddon Media (formerly Hammerheart Records). Their third album, The Last Ordeal, was released in 2005, and their fourth release, In These Veins, was released in 2006 on Cold Records. In 2009, Hearse released their fifth album, Single Ticket To Paradise. A music video for the song "Sundown" was produced.