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Reception studies have traditionally focused on aural and visual media, but our noses offer us another route to the past. In this paper, I use sensory and reception studies to discuss the ephemeral but evocative reception of classical antiquity in modern perfume.

Perfume companies frequently use ancient referents in their marketing to suggest that their scents possess qualities such as decadence, allure, or mystery. Some of these classical allusions draw on simple pop-culture images of, e.g., Nero (as in Roberto Cavalli’s scent Nero Assoluto: “elegance is bestowed by its precious and ultimate quality key ingredients... A seductive orchestra of orchids... bestows exceptional sensuality”[1]). Others use more obscure allusions, as in the Parisian fragrance company Iunx Parfums, named for the whirling wheel employed in Greek love spells. Niche online perfume manufacturers like Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab or Sage Goddess offer especially rich selections of classics-themed blends, named things like Hecate, Sapphics, Delphi, and Hesperides. BPAL in particular is known for their lush, gothic ad copy which relies heavily on literary allusion. The description of their perfume Ekhidna, for example, is almost entirely a quotation of Hesiod, a profoundly odd way to sell perfume in 2021, but one which resonates with an audience with literary and classical interests. What entices wearers to perfume themselves like “the Mother of Monsters, the Eel of Tartarus”?[2] BPAL’s choice of referents can be obscure (Ogygia, Ladon, Antikythera Mechanism), their take on the Greco-Roman world emphasizes hedonism, myth, and antiquity, and they are influenced by pop-culture reclamations and reinventions of figures like hetairai, Persephone, and Medea.

In this paper, I discuss how companies and perfume-wearers reimagine the ancient world and use it in their public presentation. A scent with a literary pedigree lets you wear an allusion, with the literal scent enhanced by the stories told about it. A perfume smelling of almonds, myrrh, and musk is pleasant; the same perfume, when called Hecate, is redolent of magic, dangerous power, and antiquity. The textual aspect of such perfumes can overwhelm the scent itself: BPAL’s Oneiroi, for instance, is described only as smelling “soporific, dark, and unfathomable”[3]. But perfume is also notoriously ambiguous in its meaning (Gell 1977), and the only person who can truly decode the allusion in the scent Hecate is the wearer: someone smelling them will perceive only the pleasant odor. While there is a pleasure in being one’s only audience (e.g. Brant 2008, who discusses perfuming herself like a dryad), online perfume fandoms[4] also allow enthusiasts to review and discuss blends, often with discussion of what the scent means to them and what sort of character they want to assume by wearing it. Ultimately, wearers are perhaps perfuming themselves for the internet as much as for people who can actually smell them, engaging in scent-play in which allusive perfumes let wearers transform themselves into classical texts which appeal to their imaginations.

 

[1] https://www.robertocavalli.com/en-us/shopping/woman-nero-assoluto-eau-d…

[2] https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/in-memoriam/ekhidna/

[3] https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/somnium/oneiroi/

[4] E.g., https://www.bpal.org/