Perfumes

Ancient Egyptian Perfumes


 * Ingredients used in Perfumery:**

Alkanet

Almond

Aloe

Bay Laurel

Cinnamon

Egyptian Balsam Tree

Henna

Iris Jasmine

Juniper

Lichen

Lotus

Marjoram

Moringa

Myrrh

Myrtle

Sedge

Sesame

Sweet Flag

Throughout the ancient world the Egyptians were famous for their scents and perfumes. Pliny described a perfume which still had its full fragrance after eight years. The Egyptians produced fragrant salves for medicinal purposes, ointments for mummification, and oils for the body and the anointing of cult statues. Mummies were anointed with perfume to bestow life upon them and render them acceptable to the gods. This had also the happy consequence of making the process of mummification, which could last for up to several months, more bearable.

Perfumers were depicted on the walls of tombs extracting the scent of various ingredients. Perfumes were mostly based on plants: the roots, blossoms, berries, or leaves. Scent essences were extracted in two ways: mechanical and chemical, generally a combination of both. First, the ingredients were mashed or ground up and then either pressed in a bag to squeeze the scents out, or steeped in wine in order to dissolve the fragrant alcohols. Sometimes the ingredients were heated. Oil was added to produce liquid perfumes, while creams and salves were the result of adding beeswax or fat. As a base for scented oils, oil made from seeds of the moringa, horseradish, colocynth, or sesame was used, and after its introduction from the east, olive oil.

The flowers and plants used were indigenous, such as the lotus, or imported, such as jasmine from India. Many perfumes had more than a dozen ingredients. One recipe called //hekenu//, used in temple worship at Edfu, took one full year for complete preparation. Perfumes and creams were generally kept in stone or glass vessels, which was believed to preserve the scent. Temples received allocations of raw materials such as oils, incense, and blooms and prepared their final products in their own workshops. Anointing with oil was a sign of distinction - when the pharaoh presented gifts at his court, an attendant would anoint the recipient's body and clothes with scented oil.

Scents were believed to have originated from the gods, to have sprung from their eyes or tears or bones. Many plant ingredients were known as the "fruit of the eye of Horus." A common refrain was "Hail, ye gods, whose scent is sweet!" In one creation myth the sacred lotus was the first thing to emerge from the waters of Nun, bringing with it its perfume. Gods were since associated with fragrant smells, chief among them Nefertem, who was closely bound to the lotus, a symbol of life and immortality. The god Shesmu was known as the “Master of the Perfumery," and rooms in his temples were used for the production and storage of oils and perfumes. The goddess Isis was thought to have first used scented ointments to heal her son, Horus.

One of the reasons that the ancient Egyptians took such care to preserve their dead with sweet-smelling oils was that it was believed Anubis would check each person with his keen canine nose. Only if they smelled pure would he allow them to enter Sehet Aaru (the Kingdom of the Dead.) It was perfume, among other things, which put the king in a position to join the gods: "O King, I have come and bring to you the perfume of the Eye of Horus, and its perfume is on you, O King. Its perfume is on you, the perfume of the Eye of Horus is on you, O King, and you will have a soul by means of it . . ." This “odor of sanctity” idea was adopted by Christian doctrine, which maintained that the corpses of saints never stank, but always smelled as sweet as flowers.

Ancient Egyptian Perfumes and Cosmetics