Ancient Scented Statues
By Owain Williams
Where once it was believed that Greco-Roman statues were simply white marble, it is now common knowledge that ancient statues were painted, and even decorated with jewels, precious metals, and textiles. We have probably all seen at least one reconstruction of a statue painted in bright – even garish, by modern standards – colours. A new study has argued that statues were not only painted, but they were also scented!
Ancient history tends to focus on specific events or institutions – what happened to who, why it happened, and where. What is less discussed, largely because it is so difficult to determine and properly convey, is the lived experiences of ancient people, such as the sights they saw and the scents they smell. In an article titled ‘The Scent of Ancient Greco-Roman Sculpture’, Dr Cecilie Brøns has gathered the evidence for the “olfactory dimensions” (p. 18) of Greek and Roman sculpture.
As Brøns notes, there are plenty of references in the sources to the anointing of statues with scents. For example, the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, dated to the late seventh century BC, reads:
the Graces bathed her with heavenly oil such as blooms upon the bodies of the eternal gods – oil divinely sweet, which she had by her, filled with fragrance.
In the first-century-BC speech Against Verres, Cicero discusses the actions of the Segestans on Sicily:
What is more notorious throughout all Sicily than that all the matrons and virgins of Segesta came together when Diana was being taken out of their city? that they anointed her with precious unguents? that they crowned her with chaplets and flowers? that they attended her to the borders of their territory with frankincense and burning perfumes?
In addition to the plentiful literary evidence, Brøns has also noted how inscriptions from Hellenistic Delos contain perfumes among the materials in temple accounts. For example, one inscription, dated to 279 BC, contains an inventory for the adornment (kosmesis) of statues of Artemis and Hera:
For the kosmesis for the statue 7 drachmas and 3 obols. Theophantos who repaired the chariot carrying the statue of Dionysos received 1 drachma. Nails for 3 obols. For making the key for the house of Stratonike Dexios received 2 drachmas. For the kosmesis of the statue of Artemis natron (soda carbonate) was purchased for 4 obols, sponges for 2 drachmas, 1.5 chous of oil for 3 drachmas and 3 obols, linen and wax for 4 obols and rose perfume from Komoidas for 5 drachmas ... For the kosmesis of the statue of Hera sponges were purchased for 1 drachma, oil for 3 drachmas and 3 obols, and for all other things the priestesses received 6 drachmas.
There are at least seven other inscriptions from Hellenistic Delos that record the acquisition of perfume, oils, and sponges, among other items, for the kosmesis of statues.
As the literary references demonstrate, the scenting of statues in Greco-Roman antiquity is not a new discovery. What is important about this article, however, is the collation of the literary references and their reflection in epigraphic sources. Taken together, this evidence demonstrates just how prevalent applying scented materials to statues was. By the Hellenistic period, money was set aside to acquire perfumes and scented oils to apply to statues.
Cecilie Brøns’ article has been published online in Early View by Oxford Journal of Archaeology.