Erasmus has this to say about Ambrosia:
Now this gain in happiness costs very little, whereas real facts
often take a lot of trouble to acquire, even when they are quite
unimportant, like grammar. An Opinion, on the other hand, is
very easily formed, and it is equally conducive to happiness, or
even more so. Just suppose that a man is eating rotten' salt
fish, and they taste like ambrosia to him though another man
can't stand the stink; does that affect his happiness? Whereas
if the taste of sturgeon makes some-one sick, what can it add to
the blessings of life? If anyone has a particularly ugly wife
who has the power to rival Venus in her husband's eyes, isn't it
just the same as if she were genuinely beautiful? The possessor
of a dreadful daub in red and yellow paint who gazes at it in
admiration, convinced that it is a painting by Apelles or
Zeuxis, would surely be happier than someone who has paid a high
price for a genuine work by one of these artists but perhaps
gets less pleasure from looking at it.and then goes on to talk about Plato's cave, where "there's nothing to choose between the two conditions, or if there is, the fools are better off, first because their happiness costs them so little, in fact only a grain of persuasion, secondly because they share their enjoyment of it with the majority of men."
This passage about the Islands of the Blest where he, Folly, was born is delightful. I'm particularly partial to nepenthe, which "changes grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness and hatred to love. Having taken it, people are incapable of sorrow." Islands of the Blest:
Toil, old age and sickness are unknown there. There's no
asphodel, mallow, onions, vetch and or any other such worthless
stuff to be seen in the fields, but everywhere there's moly,
panacea, nepenthe, marjoram, ambrosia, and lotus, roses and
violets and hyacinths, and gardens of Adonis to refresh the eye
and nose. Born as I was amidst these delights I didn't start
life crying, but smiled sweetly at my mother straight away.I would then propose an ambrosia made of all the ingredients above, both base and divine. Onions and panacea, mallow and rose, nepenthe and vetch, marjoram and asphodel. Sprinkle with violets and hyacinths and serve on lotus with warm nepenthe.
