3 January 2022 ~ Rob Hoogerwerf

Perfume, a gift from Venus

According to the Greeks, perfume was a gift from God. It is said to have been Venus, who passed on the secret of her delicious perfume to the Greeks via the fairy Oenone. Women, as well as men, used different perfumes for each part of their bodies. The hands smelt of the heavy perfume of Egypt, cheeks, and chest was given a touch of Phoenician perfume, the arms smelt of mentha, the eyebrows of marjoram, and the knees and neck of a droplet or wild thyme. The feet were given the most expensive perfume, namely Baccharis, which had saffron as its main ingredient. A lively trade in perfumes had developed. Perfumes were usually named after their makers. In the days of Alexander the Great, the perfumer Megallus was famous. In his perfume Megaleion, he used not only precious myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and burnt lacquer, but also sacred oil from Balanos. He colored the perfume pink to distinguish it from the products of his competitors, and it is said that the mixture had healing properties. It was rubbed into the skin and relieved the burning sensation of war wounds. Many perfumes and medicinal effects were attributed to it. A type made from vine leaves was said to broaden the mind when sniffed, and a famous fragrance, based on violets, could induce deep sleep.

If you ever have the opportunity to have coffee in the beautiful King George Hotel in Athens, you can easily imagine yourself back in the days when perfumer Peron's shop was located in the same place. It was a popular meeting place for Athenians, who practiced politics while buying perfumes. The most enduring varieties at the time were Egypt and Megaleion. Men preferred a lighter variety, Susinum, made from red lilies, oil of Ben, rose extract, cinnamon, saffron, and myrrh. The men of Athens liked to use perfume in powder form so they could sprinkle it on the bedsheets, where it would come into contact with the skin. Clothes and wardrobes were scented by perfume in concentrated form. A god perfumer would always advise his clients to dampen the compressed perfume with some wine. This dissolved some of the fragrance and gave the oil more consistency, which made the perfume retain the essence better. The writer Apollonius was the first to advise applying perfume to the inside of the wrist. There the scent was "sweeter" than anywhere else on the body. Women still prefer to apply perfume to the wrist when they want to smell whether it suits their personality. Hospitality was art in ancient Greece. Slaves stood ready with water, in which a guest would immerse his hands, and then scrub them clean with fragrant clay mixed with the juice of lilies. Fine linen towels were laid out next to alabaster vases containing fragrant oil, with which the guest could refresh face and hands. Then a wreath of violets or other flowers was placed around the neck. It was good table manners to put a flower from the wreath in the wine glass during the meal when one was drinking to the health of one's friends. Between the guests, cushions were placed, which were filled with flower petals, and which gave off a sweet fragrance at every touch. In the face of such excess, criticism was not absent. The philosopher Socrates refused the fragrant oil offered to him by his host Callias and wryly said: "Perfume a free man and a slave and they have the same scent. It is the smell of work and sport that a citizen should be proud of."