Gaius Plinius Secundus (Born 23 AD; Birthplace: Como, – Died: August 25, 79 AD _Got too close to an erupting volcano), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher. Best Known As: The author of Natural History Gaius Plinius
Some of the most praised aromas from the First Century CE
Attar of roses
Cinnamon
Myrrh
Arabian scents of the 1st Century CE
Spices: cinnamon, cassia
Aromatic resins: myrrh, frankincense
Attar of roses means the volatile oil contained inside the fresh petals. It is used in making rose water and scented perfumes. Use only fresh petals that have been picked in the morning after the dew has evaporated but before the strong afternoon sun has warmed them.
Preparation Time: 1080 hrs
Ingredients
2 -3 cups fresh rose petals and leaves gently washed
Coarse salt, such as kosher or rock salt, as required
Directions:
1 Pat dry the rose petals and leaves between a layer of cotton towels or paper towels.
2 Place a layer of petals inside a clean ceramic crock or dark-colored glass jar.
3 Over each layer, sprinkle a thin covering of salt.
4 Repeat until the crock or jar is full.
5 Cover the container tightly.
6 Place in a cool and dark place for 3-6 weeks.
7 The salt extracts the moisture from the petals and leaves, which should collect in the bottom of your jar.
8 Strain the liquid through a coffee filter or several layers of cheesecloth.
9 This is the wonderful scented attar of roses for you.
10 To make fresh rose water, add a drop or two of this oil to 1 cup of distilled water.
11 ENJOY!
Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/attar-of-roses-72823#ixzz1bwpBlULk
Cinnamon is a spice that is dried aromatic tree bark, used as strips or ground into powder. Produce by an evergreen tropical tree that produces cinnamon (colors a warm reddish brown color); the tree is native to: Asia. Genus: Cinnamomum
Cassia is an evergreen Asian tree with an aromatic bark. Latin name: Cinnamomum aromaticum or the aromatic bark of cassia tree.
Myrrh (sweet cicely) is an aromatic resinous gum obtained from various trees and bushes that are native to Africa and southern Asia. Use: in perfume, incense, and medicinal preparations. It is sweet-smelling
Frankincense is an aromatic gum or resin used as incense, especially in religious ceremonies, and in perfumes. It is obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, native to Africa.
The Greeks and Romans, using their home-grown and their imported aromatics blended perfumes like
• Susinum (lilies, oil of behen nut, sweet flag, honey, cinnamon, saffron and myrrh.
• Megalium (by the roman perfumer Megallus, contains balsam, rush, reed, behen nut oil, cassia and resin.
• The royal perfume was composed from more than 20 ingredients like wild grape, spikenard, lotus, cinnamon, myrrh, gladiolus and marjoram.
• Kyphi (The most famous Egyptian perfume- blend of 16 ingredients; it relieve anxiety, brighten dreams and heal the soul said Plutarh)
Note: English speakers use Plutarch
Perfume trends at the time (after Plinius)
• Iris (from Corinth)
• Cyzicus (vine-flower scent made in Cyprus)
• Adramytteum and marjoram(made in Cos
• Quince-blossom unguent
Forms of perfumes in antiquity
• Toilet waters
• Oils
• Dry powders
• Thick unguents
• Incense
Note: In classical poetry the Graces are described as wearing garments scented with Crocus, Hyacinth, blooming Violet and the sweet petals of the peerless rose.
“The smell of some plants is sweeter at a distance, becoming fainter as the distance is lessened; for instance, that of the violet. A freshly gathered rose smells at a distance, but a faded rose when nearer. All perfume however is stronger in spring, and in the morning; as the day draws near to noon it grows weaker. Young plants also have less perfume than old ones; the strongest perfume however of all plants is given out in middle age” Plinius, Natural History
The perfumed banquet – any banquet is proper only if it is complemented by perfume.
For a successful dinner party in Greece or Rome were necessary 3 kinds of scents: fresh flowers, perfumed unguents and incense:
• Put fresh flowers on the floor.
• Rub the table with mint leaves and put garlands on the guests.
• Use scented water for guests to wash their hands between courses of meal. Put perfumed ointments on the table, too.
Note:
• Garlands can be made of many different kind of flowers or leaves: roses, violets, hyacinths, apple-blossoms, thyme, rosemary, myrtle, bay and parsley. Worn on the: head _alleviate the effects of drinking; breast _enliven the heart
• Roman offered perfume how we offer a cup of coffee for our guests.
• Still, they were quite fond of strong-flavored foods such as cheese, garlic and onion.
• The dinners must end with a dessert. (fruits for example) “…fruits to be served whose scent alone would be a feast” Juvenal
• Sometimes was impossible to distinguish the product of a cook from that of a perfumer.
“Consider now, how sweet the earth doth smell.
How fragrantly the smoke ascends to heaven:
There lives, I fancy, here within this cave
Some perfume seller, or Sicilian cook. “Cratinus
Pythagorean feast (Pitagora {English speakers use Pythagoras} was vegetarian)
• The banquet shall be figs and grapes and cheese,
For these the victims are which the strict law
Allows Pythagoras’ sect to sacrifice
• By Jove, as fine a sacrifice as any.
Good to know from ancestors
Ancients believed that perfumes are sweetest when the scent came from the wrist.
Perfumes must be kept in cool and dry places, hermetically closed wares.
The scent of roses is so powerful that it will overwhelm most other perfumes. (Theophrastus, early Greek botanist)
Perfumes were worn by men and women on their hair, breasts, sometimes on legs and feet. (See the account in the New Testament of Jesus having his feet perfumed with expensive ointment)
The true perfume lovers were not content to anoint themselves with simply one scent, but would use different perfumes for different body parts. Example: feet and legs/ Egyptian unguents; jaws and breasts / thick palm oil; arms/ extract sweet of mint; eyebrows and hair / marjoram, and knee and neck / essence of ground thyme (Antiphanes refers about a wealthy Greek)
Myrrh has bitter taste.
The wine was flavored with myrrh and honey, along with the essences of various flowers.
All this proves that the ancients had a highly developed sense of olfactory aesthetics.
How to get rid of daily foully smells of the city from your skin
1. Get a sauna (sweet in a sudatorium )
2. Take a warm bath ( tepidarium )
3. Swim in cold water ( frigidarium )
4. Get a massage with scented oil or use only scented oil and anoint yourself with perfumes ( unctuarium )
Note: The Romans did that once a day!
Greek wine considered loved by Bacchus
“Violets and roses mix their lovely scent
And hyacinths, in one rich fragrance blent.”
Roman wine recipe from a wine lover: my myrrh, my cinnamon, my rose, my saffron, my cassia, my fenugreek.”
If perfumes were often added to wine, wine was also added to perfumes, contributing a pleasant fragrance of grapes to the compound. Honey perfume depends of the flowers used by the bee to make it.
Note: the ancients used sometime to eat perfumes. (Today they’ll get poisoned).
Household Scents
• Store clothes in a cedar chest/ will keep them fragrant and protected from moths, which dislike the scent of cedar.
• Fill cushions with dried herbs and use powdered scents between bedclothes.
• Burn scented wood in the fireplace during winter.
• Burn incense in the kitchen and storerooms: protect against rodents and perfumes the wares within.
• Sprinkle the mosaic floors with fragrant water.
• Daub the walls with perfumed unguent.
• Incense the clothes with perfume.
• Perfume your pool water.
• Potted flowers (fragrant violets on a window-sill) keep stench of town to come in your house trough the window.
For descriptions of the fragrance of kisses……..read Martial and for descriptions of love fragrance… read Plautus (playwrights MILES GLORIOSUS and Casina)).
Other spices and fragrances used by ancients
• Saffron the deep orange-colored stigmas of a type of crocus, sometimes ground to a powder. Use: food colorant, flavoring. (a bright orange-yellow color)
• Crocus a crocus thought to have originated from the Greek island of Crete whose flowers produce saffron. Flowers: showy, purple or white. Native to: Europe, South and Southwest Asia. Latin name: Crocus sativus
• Marjoram an herb with aromatic leaves and small purple or white flowers. Native to: Mediterranean. Latin name: Origanum majorana. Use: seasoning in cooking and salads.
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