Programme & Abstracts :: Registration Details :: Accommodation

THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002

Jeri DeBrohen
Brown University, RI.

Scent as an Element of Ancient Dress

Recent studies of the communicative powers of dress as an expressive medium have extended the definition of dress to include not only clothing but 'visual as well as other sensory modifications (taste, smell, sound, and feel) and supplements (garments, jewelry, and accessories) to the body which set off either or both cognitive and affective processes that result in recognition or lack of recognition by the viewer.' (J. Eicher, 'Introduction: Dress as Expression of Ethnic Identity, in idem [ed.], Dress and Ethnicity [BERG: Oxford, 1995], 1) This paper focuses on the sensory modification of scent, a special element of dress. While we might more readily consider the use of perfumes, scented oils, unguents, and powders alongside cosmetics and wigs as an enhancement or adornment, theancient textual evidence suggests that the application of scent was a regular aspect of dress and proba scent in the different areas of hygiene, personal enhancement, religious ritual, and entertainment, but also its trade and manufacture.

The significance of scent (and body odours) in Greco-Roman antiquity has been underestimated and underexamined. This is primarily due to the fact that its importance, and especially the details surrounding its use, cannot be ascertained readily from the material evidence alone. Fortunately, we have a surviving Greek treatise On Odours, by Aristotle's successor, Theophrastus (c.372/1-288/7 B.C.), in addition to Pliny's Natural History and considerable anecdotal evidence. Theophrastus' learned treatise has received little critical attention, and one of the aims of this paper is to redress this neglect. Because Theophrastus is both a scientific philosopher and an acute cultural observer (as is evidenced by his more famous work, the Characters), he provides essential information about the perfume industry in antiquity, as well as about the way in which perfumes were applied (whether dining or bedding).