Ancient Fragrant Lore: from Egypt to the Eastern Mediterranean

by: Elena Vosnaki

Egyptian scene depicting the preparation of Lily perfume, 4th century BC, fromwikipedia

If there are roughly two schools of thought among perfume lovers concerning the products of the last century of perfumery—one embracing the past and its fragrant specimens as superior to the present, the other placing a greater value in modernity and aesthetic contemporaneity and some people straddling the two picking the best of both worlds—few people can claim that the distant, ancient past of the use of scent by man leaves them entirely cold. Like pop archaeology perpetuated into Facebook and casual commentary over the cheese platter or relying on social anthropology to explain popular behaviors we love to dis, there is the sense of mapping out an arcane path of the present via the disentangling of the past. It's irresistible!

Egyptian women depicted wearing perfume cones on their heads

In what concerns the use of perfumes and fragrant unguents or fumigation rituals the path of choice lands us firmly on the land of the Pharaohs, the Eastern Mediterranean and the progeny that follows these traditions into the more recent Arab and Florentine technological interventions that account for the first glimpses of modern perfumery. To Egypt then, for starters.

Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847-1928) Cleopatra on the Terraces of Philae

If we all have Cleopatra and her scented barge popping into our minds, thanks to pop culture and Shakespeare, at the mere hint of Egypt in relation to fragrances, we're not to blame. Such was the identification of Egypt with perfume production from time immemorial, despite other ancient civilizations dabbling in perfume making in an equal degree, that during Julius Caesar's Roman triumphs, alabastra (aromatic essence holding vials, the term being alabastron/αλάβαστρον in Greek due to the material used to make them, i.e. alabaster) were tossed to the crowd to demonstrate his mastery over Egypt!

Egypt

Perfumes for personal use, much like fine fragrance of nowadays, were plenty and featured indigenous as well as imported ingredients, again much like today. "Susinum" was based upon the aroma of lilies with myrrh and cinnamon in balanos oil. The "Mendesian" featured myrrh, cassia and assorted gums and resins steeped in oil and was named from the ancient city of Mendes (production soon went outside the borders of the city).

"Cyprinum" was not named after Cyprus, the Greek island in the east Mediterranean from which the name of modern day Coty's Chypre derives from, but was instead based upon the scent of henna (Lawsonia inermis) along with cardamom, cinnamon, myrrh and southernwood.

myrrh resin

But who were the innovators who first thought about them? Egyptian perfumers from Canopus or olfactory artists from Ashkelon, Cyprus or Sidon? "Mendesian" is named after the ancient city of Mendes, although eventually that perfume would be created elsewhere, even outside Egyptian borders. Ancient writers Pliny the Elder and Pedanius Dioscorides regarded the Egyptian product to be superior over all others at any rate. The Mendesian featured myrrh, cassia and assorted gums and resins steeped in oil. "Stakte" contained an even stronger aroma of myrrh—the formula demanded bruised myrrh itself, or the resin added to balanos oil.

The writers do not disregard a specific attention to passing vogues, again, much like today. Judging by the juxtaposition of the literary figures of perfumers Baldini and Pelissier in Patrick Suskind's famous novel Perfume, The Story of a Murderer set during the Age of Enlightnment, the former a traditionalist who opposes the change of fashion as unnecessary and is satisfied with minor twists in well-established formulae every 10 years, the latter a revolutionary who excites and surprises the French bourgeoisie with wildly different compositions every six months, this, too, is a phenomenon as old as history itself.

Writes Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in the 1st century AD:

"The scent of iris from Corinth has long been in fashion, followed by that of Cyzicus. The same happened for the fragrances of rose from Phaselis, a preeminence challenged by Naples, Capoua, and Palestrina. The scent of saffron from Soles in Cilicia has been taken over by the scent from island of Rhodes. The fragrance from the vine flowers coming from Cyprus has been surpassed by that from Andramyttion. The fragrance smelling of marjoram from the island of Cos had been in vogue, then the scent of quince from the same island took over. In what concerns the fragrance of henna, people initially went for that coming from the island of Cyprus, then from that which came from Egypt whereuponthe perfumes of Mendes (the Mendesian) and the 'metopion' almost immediately gained popularity over it nevertheless. Later Phoenicia got the monopoly on those two perfumes and left Egypt with the advantage on the scent of henna. Athens has retained its unique production of the 'Panathenaikon.' There already was a 'Pardalium'" in the city of Tarsus, but we know neither composition nor blending method of that. Perfume makers have also since abandoned the use of the narcissus plant in their fragrant blends."
 

The ravages of time and the changed conditions also account for changes in the fragrances produced, their quality and their provenance.

Apollonius Herophilus already mentions most of the information from Pliny above and adds in his Treatise on Perfumes in the 2nd century BC:

"The Itopion unguent, coming from bitter almonds, is made best in Egypt. But the excellence of each perfume depends much more on the experience of the artist and the good quality of the materials than on the country it is coming from, on which let me bring as example the city of Ephesus, previously renowned on its aromatics, but now producing rather ordinary fare. The unguents of Alexandria have never reached the quality of the time that Arsinoe encouraged the industry and the best extract of roses has been produced in Cyrene under the reign of Berenice who used it. It was thanks to the care of Stratonike, Eumenes's wife, that the extract from the leaves of the vine, previously mediocre, has gained excellence at Andramyttion. In older times Syria used to produce every declination of perfume imaginable with the utmost care, especially that of fenugreek; but it is no longer so. A certain perfumer in Pergamon had devised a delicious unguent made from incense, but he has died and the recipe has been lost."
 

cyperus

Besides the refined fragrances for personal use, sacred perfumes restricted to religious rites and used only by the priesthood were made with exactitude and meticulous attention to the sourcing of the materials. The infamous Kyphi, which is documented by the Greek authors of antiquity—indeed the word "kyphi" is Greek in itself—such as Dioscorides, Plutarch and the doctor Galen, with slight variations, is perhaps the best known. Unfortunately for us the Egyptian priest Manetho's treatisePreparation of Kyphi, which should be a direct source of inside information, is lost to us. Papyrus Harris I records the donation and delivery of herbs and resins for its manufacture in the temples under Ramses III for his afterlife. Instructions for its preparation and lists of ingredients are found among the wall inscriptions at the temples of Edfu and Dendera in upper Egypt.

Plutarch writes in Isis and Osiris in the 1st century AD about Kyphi:

"Kyphi is a composite of 16 ingredients: honey, wine, raisin, nutsedge (cyperus esculentus), resin, myrrh, aspalathos, moon carrot (seseli gummiferum), mastic, bitumen, aloe and cane to which two types of juniper berries are added […], cardamom and calamus. The mixing of the ingredients isn't made casually but follows sacred recipes which are read to the perfume makers during the preparation process […] As most products which enter the composition of kyphi have aromatic properties, it emits an agreeable scent with beneficial effluvium." Other variations with twists in the ingredients list exist in other writers' opera.
 

From all the forms of ancient Egyptian methods of aromatizing (fumigation, incense burning, pomade and fragranced oils) only one seems consistent with what we consider perfume today: aromatic perfume-oils. Vegetable oils were used as a carrier oil for the essences and two were favoured above all others by the ancient perfumers: balanos and ben. The reason was their naturally neutral odor which would minimally interfere with the final fragrance and the fact that they would keep fragrance longest. Balanos oil comes from the fruit of the Balanites aegyptiaca tree, although nowadays no oil is commercially produced from it. Ben oil also circulated under the names moringa, behen, baq or horseradish tree oil (Moringa oleifera) and was used in various therapeutic purposes as well.

Moringa oleifera, moringa leaf powder

The mysteries of ancient perfumery hold plenty of fascination for contemporary perfume lovers as well as endless research potential, so our journey to the omphalos of the earth will continue in Part 2.