Greek perfumes |
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Greek Perfumes - Perfume was used by the ancient Greeks from earliest days, being mentioned frequently by Homer (10th century BC). It was offered to the gods, used to provide fragrance in cooking and employed for medicinal purposes and personal hygiene, as well as being enjoyed simply for the pleasure it gave. Sometimes different perfumes were used for different parts of the body, as is satirized by Antipanes: 'He really bathes in a large gilded tub, and steeps his feet and legs in rich Egyptian unguents; his jaws and breasts he rubs with thick palm oil, and both his arms with extract of sweet mint, his eyebrows and his hair with marjoram, his knees and neck with essence of ground thyme.'
The Greeks were particularly fond of perfume made from flowers, but used a wide variety of other ingredients. As early as 450 BC, Herodotus recorded that frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatic gums, were imported from Arabia. Our most detailed knowledge of Greek perfumes comes from the botanist Theophrastus, who wrote both on botany and on perfumes. He observed that in his time (which encompassed the conquests of Alexander the Great) spikenard, cardamom and other materials were brought to Greece from India. Theophrastus described several compound perfumes popular with the Greeks, including Mendesian (called in Greece ‘the Egyptian'), Kypros, Megalaeion, Rose Perfume and Susinon. Another favorite compound perfume was Metopian. Theophrastus also mentioned several important perfumes based on single plants, including gilliflower, bergamot, thyme, saffron, myrtle, quince, and a perfume based on marjoram which also contained costus. Balanos and sesame oil were recommended as base oils. Besides the plants mentioned above, he recorded a number of others used by the Greeks in perfume making, including: cassia, cinnamon, a balsam, storax, iris, all-heal, camel-grass, sweet-flag and dill. A perfume called Oenanthe was made from vine leaves. Scented powders made from dried aromatic plants, and used by sprinkling over clothes, were sometimes fortified with Magma. Most of the Greek perfume makers were women.
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