The Ancient Lure of Pretty Perfumes

Cupid hovers over Psyche like a perfume hawker at a department store.

I love this fresco of Psyche sniffing her wrist as she tests a new perfume cupid has brought her (from Pompeii at the Getty Villa).

How charming is it?  And how still true. After all, what woman hasn't dabbed a pretty scent on her wrist and sniffed?

Perfumes were big business in the ancient world. When I was researching Cleopatra's world, I was amused to learn that one of the reasons King Herod of Judea despised the queen was that Antony handed her territories that had once belonged to him.

Antony needed ships, Egypt had no forests, so BOOM, he took some of Herod's forested lands and gave them to the queen so she could build up his navy for him. That was bad enough, but Antony also gave her territory near the Dead Sea that included a very profitable perfume factory, probably so that she could use the profits to fund the ship-building.

Which is a reminder that the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra wasn't necessarily (as the Romans painted it) a hot and dangerous love-affair, but more of a mutually-beneficial business arrangement. She'd help him win a war, if he'd help her maintain power (and even expand) her kingdom.

Bidness (as we say in the South) before pleasure, folks.

The Egyptian god of perfume.

Perfumes and scents were big bidness in the ancient world for many reasons--primarily because the ancient world reeeeeked.  There is no other way of putting it. Check out this post by author Caroline Lawrence on the disgusting aromas with which the ancients had to contend. Apparently, if you had a time machine, you would want to lug several cases of Febreeze with you just so you could make it through the day.

The ancients used perfumes in religious as well as bathing rituals. So important where scents to the Egyptians, they even had a god of beautiful fragrance, Nefertem.  

One prayer of the Book of the Dead intones its hopes that the newly deceased will "Rise like Nefertem from the blue water lily, to the nostrils of Ra, and come forth upon the horizon each day."

In other words, may you come back to life in the Afterworld smelling like a rose (or actually, a blue lotus).

Rose and cinnamon were, according to some experts, the most popular combination for ancient perfumes. Interesting combination, eh?

Perhaps the smell would be akin to eating a Cinnabon while in the center of a rose garden. Maybe the ancients were on to something...

For more, check out this entry on ancient perfume-making from the Getty Museum blog.

Getting Kids Excited About Ancient History

My friend and fellow docent Conway Bracket teaches Latin and ancient Greek in Atlanta. This past
summer, she joined us at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur for our week-long Camp Half-Blood, based on the best-selling Percy Jackson series. She taught the kids ancient Greek because that's what they do at Camp Half-Blood.  For the first time, she also taught Latin because Rick Riordan added a Roman element to his mythology action-adventure series.  

In The Lost Hero, the Greek demigod kids learn that they have a competing camp of demigods whose parents were Roman gods. But wait, weren't the Roman gods just Romanized versions of the Greek gods? Yes, but they were also filtered through the unique Roman world-view of honor, duty, piousness, etc. Conway was able to keep their interest as she introduced them to both languages. The fact that she kept their attention during a summer (fun) camp shows you just how engaging she is. Check out her site at www.classicalprep.com.

I've also recently learned that one of my favorite authors, Caroline Lawrence, is creating two spin-offs from her popular Roman Mysteries series, one for younger readers and one for the young adult market.  Yes!

The series for younger readers focuses on an eight year-old beggar boy in Ostia named Threptus. He was introduced in The Man from Pomegranate Street. The new series debuts in 2012. No word yet on when the YA series comes out but you can bet I'll be one of the first in line.

It's wonderful to see kids get so excited about the ancient past. It pains me that public schools in Georgia do not teach ancient history or Greek mythology at all (there's a smattering of ancient history here and there, but nothing substantial until high school).

These books demonstrate that the classical and ancient worlds continue to enthrall kids and teens. Many a kid has developed a lifelong passion for literature, history and/or art because of their early introduction to ancient history. Some of us just never outgrew it.