Once upon a time in Greece a beautiful boy was
born with shiny black curls like a deep night;
creamy, velvety soft skin; and huge blue eyes like two big lakes. His parents named him Ampel. His father was Satyr,
one of the lower gods in the Olympus.
Ampel was a creature with a human torso and horse legs, and he was one of the closest friends and companions of the powerful god of wine and merrymaking, Dionysus. His mother was a wood nymph who lived bound up with a tree in the forest. She was a good friend of Ampelos (grapevine) and gave her newborn son the name Ampel in honor and admiration of her.
Ampel grew up surrounded by Satyrs that had horse and goat legs. He went with them everywhere they traveled. He played games with his mother’s friends, nymphs which were secondary goddesses embodying the forces of Nature. The forest’s nymphs, called dryads or wood nymphs, like his mother, told him mysterious stories about the forest and its green inhabitants. The naiads, the nymphs of lakes and rivers, taught him how to swim and told him stories about how they derived their vitality from, and in turn gave up their lives to, the water in which they dwelled. A Healthy Spirit Lives in a Healthy Body @ 41
Once when Ampel was playing in the forest with his dryad friends, he saw burgundy grapes hanging from the crown of an elm tree. The grapes looked so attractive, beautiful, and juicy that he wanted to pick and eat them. He climbed the tree and tried to tear off a branch of grapes, but he could not keep his balance and he fell to his death.
When the nymphs found him, they told the god Dionysus in desperation about the young man. Dionysus loved him like he was his own son. He was very upset when he saw Ampel lying dead in the grass, wounded and breathless, but he was powerless to bring him back to life.
“I will not give him to Hades, the god of the Underworld, who will take him into his dark Kingdom of the Shadows, the gloomy subterranean land of the dead. I will place his soul in the sky among the stars.” And he did so before Capon, Hades’ servant, could transport Ampel’s soul through Styx, the underground river of Hate, which led to the Kingdom of Shadows.
Ampel had been transformed by Dionysus into a magnificent bright star, Vindemiatrix, the so-called “grape star.”
Every night it shines in the sky with all seven colors of the rainbow.
“You see now it shines above all vineyards on earth—
like no other in the sky,” explained Grandma, “and you will always find it without mistake.”
My sister and I looked at the dark night sky with the big luminescent, multicolored star shining above and wondered if it could see us thinking at this moment about the sad destiny of a young man with the romantic name of Ampel. And Grandma, sensing our question, said, “You know, I believe that he is like a guiding light to many good things that happen to people on the earth.”
One of these good things is a treatment with grapes, a new and effective direction in alternative medicine which was recently introduced. I call this method ampelotherapy. It is widely used in well-known health resorts in Russia 42 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
and Ukraine—wellness centers in the Crimea
Warning:
and Caucasus Mountains region. There is much
evidence that ampelotherapy is used as a natural
Despite having great
treatment because of its strong curative powmedicinal properties, ers and its ability to produce good results in
grapes can provoke
many cases especially for people with nervous
aftereffects and acute
tension, tiredness, a weakened immune sysconditions of the tem, involuntary weight loss, or heart and
stomach and heart,
respiratory disorders, and patients in a stage
ulcers, breath shortage
of recovering after some serious surgeries.
accompanied by swelling
People are rejuvenated as proof that this
and hypertension, and
unique system works because ampelotherapy
intestinal pains. The
is a combination of pure natural ingredients
overuse of grapes can
given to people by the generous goddess of
promote obesity. Those
Earth. These are grape berries, fresh grape juice,
who suffer from chronic
tasty mineral water from a local spring, clean air
disease of the lungs or
full of oxygen, thousands of evergreens and beauhave dental problems tiful flowers, and basking almost all year around in
should consult a
a pleasant environment which is not affected at all
health-care practitioner
by pollution, humidity, or urbanism.
before undertaking
As you see, the explanation of this success is
grape therapy.
simple. It is a treatment with juicy grapes, combined
with the refreshing, clean, and aromatic air quality in
the warm, continental climate.
The following can lower high cholesterol:
r 34. Drink ½ cup fresh grape juice three times a day one hour before a meal. Start with ½ cup and do it for one month. During the fifth week take one cup three times a
