The Seduction of Scent: The Myth of The Scented Panther & Iunx

The ancient Greeks knew how to sprinkle fantasy and poetry into their fragrant tales: The poplars wept amber tears for the fall of the sun; Tantalus is bereft of tantalising fruits of exquisite scent forever out of his reach; and upon every tale of hero or heroine transformed into some fragrant plant or material (like Daphne, Narcissus or Myrrha), trying to escape the ever amorous advances of some god or lesser deity, reigns the fascinating myth of the scented panther.

“The panther exudes an odour that is pleasing to all other animals, which is why it hunts by staying hidden and attracting them with its scent.”

According to the myth, of all the animals, the panther was the only one that smelled naturally good. This Greek myth teaches us a thing or two about the seduction of scent, if only in how it has captured the imagination of people for milennia. The classical writers write that the panther calls on its prey. Rather different than the hidden in ambush, squating its back down onto the long grass feline, keeping an eye on its prey unwatched. The mythical panther just exudes its scent and “the fawns, gazelles and wild goats are attracted 
to this fragrance by a sort of iunx.”

This elusive word, a strange transliteration that even inpired a fragrance house by the same name conceived by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti (Iunx), is actually derived from the Greek for "to call, to cry out" and it makes sense in the sense of it working like a calling card for the panther ~or anyone using a means to an end; for our purposes that would be scent. Latin transformed it to "iynx" from which "lynx" isn't too far away (and neither is "jinx" which is also derived from it, the calling of bad luck).
Panther on the other hand literally means "all beast", from the Greek παν (pan, i.e. all) and θηρίο (thereeo, i.e. beast). The panther is a symbol, a mythical creature with the looks of an αίλουρος/ailuros, a feline and a power multiplied tenfold, only belied by its suave movement.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

 ~from R.M.Rilke's The Panther(1902)

For the Greeks, the leopard, λεοπάρδαλη or πάρδαλη (pardalis), symbolizes the beautiful courtesan. But the latter is also designated by the same term, even as late as the 20th century; I well recall women referring to other women with a shady reputation in their erotic ethos describing them by this term (παρδαλή), which also denotes eccentricity and being sui generis in Greek! Βoth creatures make use of scented wiles therefore, of mysterious spells and the advantage of ambush, basing their power on things you can't really control. The smell of the cat has tcome to symbolise seduction, capitulation to an erotic pull, love conquest and the mystery of femininity. Let's not forget how the Greeks changed the Sphinx, a creature with a woman's head, a feline's body and a serpent's tail (her name coming from the Greek "to pull, to strangle"), from a solar deity in ancient Egypt to a lunar deity, thus tieing the feminity of the symbol with the regular tide that also rules a woman's cycle. (The Greeks viewed Bast as the lunar deity Artemis, who is also accompanied by ailuri, ie. big cats)

The "iunx", although a term transfigured by metaptosis in other languages, still stood for something tangible all the same; a love charm. In erotic magic, the seductress made use of a small wheel attached to a piece of string. This little instrument produced a whirring sound which caught the ear as much as the motion caught the eye: the pull was almost mysterious.
Iunx came to transpose the object on the subject who yielded it; it came to refer to the love potion maker, intextricably linking perfume with magic and eros. Indeed in classical iconography Eros is shown as holding an iunx. In the image off a red-painted vase by the Meidias painter (410 B.C.) Adonis and Himeros (the winged god of sexual desire) are playing with an iunx.


The god Dionysos, the god of transformative mirth, of wine and of abandon to sensuous desires, is often seen riding on a panther while his priests wore panthers' skins. Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae 2. 38e writes:

"From the condition produced by wine they liken Dionysos to a bull of panther, because they who have indulged too freely are prone to violence . . . There are some drinkers who become full of rage like a bull . . . Some, also, become like wild beasts in their desire to fight, whence the likeness to a panther."

Doesn't the panther also hide in itself the power of man-eater? The violent connotation of the dangers of getting too close to a vicious force of nature? Like love can be? In the 1942 film Cat People by Jacques Tourner, a Serbian immigrant fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if she is intimate with her American spouse.

Dionysos  was keen on transformation, often completing the task with a smattering of perfume. Witness Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 143 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :

"[The infant] Dionysos was hidden from every eye . . . a clever babe. He would mimic a newborn kid; hiding in the fold . . . Or he would show himself like a young girl in saffron robes and take on the feigned shape of a woman; to mislead the mind of spiteful Hera, he moulded his lips to speak in a girlish voice, tied a scented veil on his hair. He put on all a woman's manycoloured garments: fastened a maiden’s vest about his chest and the firm circle of his bosom, and fitted a purple girdle over his hips like a band of maidenhood."

Western European tradition reinforced the magical aspect of the panther in the medieval Bestialities: After feasting, the panther will sleep in a cave, its rest lasting 3 long days & nights. After this period ends, the panther roars, in the process emiting a sweet smelling odour. This odour draws in any creature who will smell it (the dragon being the only creature immune), upon which it feeds; and the cycle begins again.
It was the advent and domination of Christianity that finally turned the "man-eater" beast or seductive woman into the fragrantly sweet word of the redeemer: the magic allure of the scented panther who lies in the den for 3 days serves as parallelism with the stay of the Messiah in the grave for 3 days before his ressurection. The scent of sanctity henceforth became the alluring pull that draws men into a different kind of seduction: That of the spirit.

Painting of the Meidias vase via http://lib.haifa.ac.il, photo by Lydia Richter via gardenofeyecandy.com

thanks to Annick Le Guérer for her help

Mythology Series: Pomegranate

Whenever I break open a big, heavy pomegranate (Punica granatum), admiring the scattering of its brilliant, wine-coloured tangy-tasting seeds, I can't help but cast my mind to the myth of Persephone and Hades, the chthonian deities forever linked with this autumnal aromatic feast. Its name deriving from the Latin (pomum for apple ~meelo in Greek~ and granatus for seeded, resulting in the Italian melograno) reminds us that, like apples, this is another fruit that is forever associated with tales of darkness, corruption, death and rebirth.

In Greek, pomegranate is called ρόδι (RHO-thee) which is extremely close in both sound and sight to ρόδο (RHO-tho, i.e. rose) ~indeed its proud russet colour reminds me of scarlet roses that hide thorns and shadows beneath their flamboyant beauty.

The pathways which introduced pomegranate to the Aegean were the same as the ones that brought the goddess whom the Anatolians worshipped as Cybele and the Mesopotamians as Ishtar (namely what became Aphrodite...). The cult of Persephone however (or Kore or Cora ~young maiden~, as she was celebrated in the Eleusianian Mysteries of ancient Greece along with her mother Demeter, the secret initiatory mystery rites of regeneration at Eleusis) traces a darker path of death and rebirth, the same path that nature seems to go through with the turning of the seasons. While Hesiodus in his Theogony considers her a daughter of Demeter (goddess of the harvest) and Zeus, other scholars ~among them Gunther Zuntz (1973)~ attribute the cult of Persephone to a continuation of Neolithic or Minoan Earth Mother goddess-worship. Walter Burkert includes that "reading" of this archetype in his definitive Greek Religion (1985). Mythology expert Karl Kerenyi went as far as to identify Persephone with the "mistress of the labyrinth" at the Minoan palace of Knossos in Bronze Age Crete (circa 1700BC)!

In ancient writers she is the parthenogenic daughter of Demeter, recalling shades of other deities who sprang through an immaculate conception, such as Athena and Jesus. The philosopher Plato on the other hand calls her Pherepapha (Φερέπαφα, from the Greek words φέρω ~to bring~ and επαφή ~touch) in his Cratylus, "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion". The Romans took the name from the Greco-cities of the Italian peninsula southernmost extremity as Proserpine (Προσερπινη, Proserpinē) and borrowed her cult as Proserpina. It is under that guise that Persephone inspired the artists of the European Renaissance, when classical antiquity was revisited with a vengeance. It is enough to cast our eyes to the paintings of the Great Masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli to admire the pomegranate into scenes of sunset-drenched beauty.

But perhaps the most popular myth concerning Persephone, the one that ties her with the autumnal crepuscule into winter and the flamboyant pomegranate, is the one about Persephone's abduction by the dark prince of the underworld, Hades or Pluto, brother of both Zeus and Poseidon:
"As she was gathering flowers with her playmates in a meadow, the earth opened and Hades, god of the dead, appeared and carried her off to be his queen in the world below. ... Torch in hand, her sorrowing mother sought her through the wide world, and finding her not, she forbade the earth to put forth its increase. So all that year not a blade of corn grew on the earth, and men would have died of hunger if Zeus had not persuaded Hades to let Persephone go. However, before he let her go Hades persuaded her eat three seeds of a pomegranate, and thus she could not stay away from him forever. So it was arranged that she should spend two-thirds (according to later authors, one-half) of every year with her mother and the heavenly gods, and should pass the rest of the year with Hades beneath the earth.... As wife of Hades, she sent spectres, ruled the ghosts, and carried into effect the curses of men." (source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
The pomegranate became her inextricable tie with the world of the dead, the somber world of shadows. In a patriarchal reading of the myth, the abduction becomes the motif of marriage, the submission of the primordial female to the male, reminding us of the comparable survival of that theme in the Abduction of the Sabines tale by the Romans.
The demise of the earth-worshipping of the mother goddess in the now industrialised city of Eleusis, near Athens, is what inspired the Greek composer Manos Hatjidakis and Greek poet Nikos Gatsos to come up with this ritualistic lament named "Persephone's Nightmare" (sung by Maria Farantouri); its somber introductory bars of music a homage to the fragmented ancient classical Greek music:

"There, where mystics joined hands reverently
on entering the sacrificial site,
now tourists throw tab ends
and gaze at the new oil refinery.
Sleep Persephone in earth's embrace,
to this world's balcony come out no more"



It is no coincidence that in today's Greek culture the offerings to which all participants partake in the Christian Orthodox memorials of the dead still consist of agricultural products, in the form of a sweet named κόλυβα (KO-lee-vah); made of boiled shredded wheat, cast sugar, various nuts and raisins and indeed ...pomegranate seeds! A small pagan homage to Persephone who sealed her fate by tasting the fruit of the underworld. It is assumed that like her, the connection of the dead with the living will be possible.
But it's also a reminder of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, the pomegranate being a symbol of the fullness of Jesus' suffering and his resurrection, finding its way into religious decoration liturgical vestments and hangings as well as art, such as this Madonna of the Pomegranate by Sandro Botticelli.
In a reverse case of exorcising the spirits of the other side, another Greek custom enacted on New Year's Day, demands that the first person to step into a home bringing the tenants luck (what's called ποδαρικό from the Greek word for foot, πόδι) crashes a ripe pomegranate with their right foot: the scattered seeds are respresenting the flooding of good things to come. Like the Qur'an says, pomegranates are among the good things the merciful God creates!

Fragrances with pomegranate notes are delightful for this time of the year when the fruit is in season: From the darkish, mysterious Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone and the arrestingly unusual Grenates by Keiko Mecheri with its angelica running thread, to the more standard-fruity-juicy Euphoria by Calvin Klein and Tropical Punch by Escada, pomegranate scents run the gamut all the way to the incensy Melograno by Santa Maria Novella. The lists includes Moschino's Couture, the elegant Ferré Rosé, Tocca's subtle Touch and the spicy-cuminy oriental Aziyadé by Parfum d'Empire . Others yet reference the scarlet beads as grenadine: In Baby Doll by Yves Saint Laurent it is married it to complimentary bittersweet grapefuit, in Ma Dame by Gaultier it's used as a neon accent in a flashy composition and in Heiress by Paris Hilton, well...it alludes to her cocktails sipping activities, I guess.

Today pomegranates are cherished for their complex textural and aromatic nuances ranging from the peppery to the lightly tangy all the way to the nectarous sweet and for the bright juice they bring into several recipes: One of these embodiments takes the role of grenadine, the name of a fruit syrup popular in Gallic cultures, originally made from pomegranates (the French word for pomegranate being grenade), used as a cordial and in numerous cocktails as well as in a number of Iranian recipes. Hence also comes the name of one of the most majestic cities of Spain, the regal Granada! One of the most delicious uses of pomegranate syrup in cooking is in muhammara, a roasted red pepper, walnut and garlic spread consumed in Turkey and Syria, while the Azeri people of Goychay, Azerbaijan devote a whole festival to the fruit's charms drenching them in wine and dance.

If you want to try pomegranates in an easy and aromatically titilating dish, I recommend you my personal recipe for Pomegranate Seed Salad:

You will need some young lettuce leaves (preferably bought when it's very cold so they "hold" and are crunchy), a peeled apple (I prefer Starkins), a heavy pomegranate, extra virgin olive oil and aceto balsamico di Modena.
Chop the apple in small pieces, wash and cut the lettuce leaves in thin slices in a plate and sprinkle over the two the pomegranate seeds, the ensuing juice that drips from the fruit. Finally drizzle the whole with olive oil and balsamico to your taste. Serves 2.
Extremely yummilicious, visually welcoming and quite filling!
Bon appetit!

Pomegranate photo via and painting of The return of Persephone by Fred Leighton and Madonna with the Pomegranate by Sandro Botticelli, all via Wikimedia Commons. Photo of Pomegranate Seed Salad by Elena Vosnaki (click to enlarge)

Perfumery Material: Honeyed Scents of Myth

I recall as a child discovering with excitement the furry exterior of bubble-bees, the kind you don't see any more, the desire to fondle only being overcome by my learned fear of its sting, which would result to a self-sacrificing end for the little critter. No matter that my first sting was only in adult life, when an errant bee was lured by my Fleurs d'Oranger (Serge Lutens), one sunny spring morning. I also recall superstitions upon which bees had to be given the news of a death in the family, and even fed a piece of the sweets and wine of the funeral meal, or they would perish as well. In my apis-loving culture the use of honey, royal jelly, bee pollen and beeswax (cystomarily used in orthodox candles for mass) has always been seen as a survival of a sacred, almost magical act which connects man and woman to the pagan nurturance and divine blessings of mother Nature. It is no coincidence that Greek cuisine makes ample and delicious use of some of the finest varieties of honey for many of its aromatic dishes. Or that babies and small children are still nursed on milk and honey in this country, recalling the nursing of baby Zeus by Melisseus ("bee-man"), father of the nymphs Adrasteia and Ide and the leader of the nine Kuretes of Crete, chthonic daimones of Mount Ida, who clashed their spears and shields to drown out the wails of infant Zeus, hidden from his cannibal father Cronus.

The lore of bees and honey harkens back to ancient civilisations who cultivated the arid, unforgiving soils of the Mediterranean and prized the industrious insects for their rich products and their amazing navigation skills (allegedly via tiny crystals naturally embedded in their brain) which made them easily domesticized. From freemason to wiccan, bees and honey appear frequently ever since antiquity as references to a society that is more tightly ordained than ours and an example of how nature and the eternal female finds a way for everything: even the promiscuity of the Queen Bee is a guarantee of safety and health of the entire hive, according to biologists! The survival of the bee is impressive, much like they themselves are considered a link between this world and the underworld. Mycenean "tholos"-style tombs are shaped to look like a beehive, while Melissa is nothing more than the Greek name for...bee (Μέλισσα), while Deborah is also linked to ancient bee priestesses.

My reprisal of these themes was ingeniously suggested by Roxana of Illuminated Perfume and evolved into this article, as well as a series of other posts in participating blogs (linked at the bottom, don't forget to visit!)

• Mythological Origins of the Bee Symbolism:

Although bees are related to the cult of Aphrodite (beehives are hexagonal, the sacred shape for Venus) their symbolic origin goes back to pre-Classical cults: The pre-Hellenic Aegean bee goddesses stood for the dominance of the female and the Minoan cult of the Goddess reflects this, if the small figurines, the jewels and the wasp-waists of the women on murals are any indication. A series of bee embossed gold plaques recovered at Camiros in Rhodes, Greece, dating from the archaic period in the 7th century BC reflects far older deities. Fermented honey, thought a gift of the Goddess, preceded the knowledge of wine in Aegean culture as well as in many European civilizations.
The famous golden Minoan "Bee Pendant" depicted on the left is technically immaculate and presents great merit from a conceptual viewpoint. Discovered at Chrisolakos, the burial ground outside the palace of Malia in Crete, it is now surrounded by other sacred objects such as ceremonial Labyrns (giant double axes) and beautiful gold rings and "double axe" and bee jewellery at the Heraklion museum in Crete, Greece. More powerfully, the bee stood as the symbol of Πότνια, "Mistress" or "Pure Mother Bee" according to Minoans and Myceneans. Her priestesses were called "Melissa", same as with worshippers of rural goddesses Artemis and Demeter.
The Delphic oracle was also referred to "the Delphic bee" (Μέλισσα), long after Apollo had usurped the ancient oracle and shrine, in the hymns by Pindar. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo mentions that Apollo's own gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee maidens, usually identified with the Thriae, pre-Hellenic Minoan bee goddesses!

Other peoples also proliferated bee motifs and lore: The Mayans had the Ah-Muzen-Cab (the Bee God), designating honey-producing cities (who prized honey as food of the gods). The Kalahari Desert's San people ascribe the Creation of man to bees: A bee carried a mantis across a river, but when exhausted it left the mantis on a floating flower, simultaneously planting a seed in the mantis's body before it died. From that seed grew the first man. The Egyptians believed bees to grow from the tears of the sun god Ra when they fell on the desert sand (much like the foam of the sea was considered by the Greeks to be the sperm of the cut genitalia of Cronus from which Aphrodite emerged). The bowstring of the Hindu love god Kamadeva is made of honeybees and Vishnu is often depicted as a blue bee.

• Honey varieties: a world of textured scents

Endless varieties of honey exist according to the raw materials the bees have been harvesting to produce it and the rich aroma of each one is testament to the wonders of nature. From the more unusual, such as the almost camphoraceous honey from eucalyptus and manuka trees from Australia, to the spicy, raw bouquet of buckewheat honey through the mild and popular one from clover, one marvels at the spectrum. Ambery-dark heather honey is full of the wildlife pungent aroma, while thyme honey with its perfectly balanced, savoury taste and herbal aroma is prized among the very best. Pine and fir trees' honey is very pleasantly a tad bitter with resinous nuances, as befits the source. Honey produced by bees harvesting acacia blossoms is especially worthy of mention: sweet like the yellow pom-poms that adorn the trees, its high fructose, low sucrose content presents some advantages concerning diabetic consumption as well as better storage capacity; same with the one from linden, because of its lightly woody olfactive profile which makes it a refined option.

Apart from the amazing flavour, all honeys contain phenolic acids and hydroxymethylfurfural, the levels being highest in thyme honey, which are purported to influence estrogenic activity and cell viability of breast, endometrial and prostate cancer cells. And of course the hydrocaptive and antimicrobal properties of honey make it a supreme addition in skincare and cosmetics, promoting hydration and health of the skin.

• The Bee as an Emblem

Interwined thoughts revert to me as I admire the delicate yet at the same time impressive motif of Napoleonic bees crowning the rims of the exquisite chinaware Les Abeilles by Haviland Parlon, the pattern directly originating from the time of the great dictator. Most people interested in perfume have owned, heard or read of Guerlain "bee bottles" (flacons d'abeilles). These glass or gilded flacons have small Napoleonic bees on relief, wonderfully referencing French royalty and its history, bees being alongside the more traditional royal symbol, the eagle, the emblems of the First and later Second Empire.
Napoléon I had a veritable mania for the industrious insect, which he had made into a symbol of his own reign; even made it into a flag and a cloak, wearing which he was painted by David. Bees long standing symbols for immortality and resurrection, they linked the new dynasty to the very origins of France, more Merovingian than Napoleonic: Golden bees (cicadas, to be exact) were discovered in 1653 in Tournai in the tomb of Childeric I, founder of the Merovingian dynasty (457AD) and father of Clovis. Therefore they are considered the oldest emblem of the sovereigns of France to whom the ambitious leader wanted to be tied to. The bee also presented the advantages of not being symbolically tied to the despised Bourbons nor Christianity.
Another version wants Napoleon moving into the Royal Palace at Tuileries and not wanting to keep the existing drapery with its embroidered fleur-de-lys (the previous French Royal emblem and one which also alludes to Mary, mother of Jesus). Being frugal on spending on new ones, he ordered them instead to be turned upside down, thus offering the world a new symbol: the bee. Lastly, conspiracy theorists might attribute his choice to freemasonry, where the bee stands as a hieroglyphic of the highest order.
Popular references to bees however are much simpler: From the dramatic cone-shaped hairdo of the 1960s known as the "beehive" to the Beehive Bundt cake which would make Martha Stewart proud!

• Honey Notes in Perfumery

Honey notes impart a gourmand quality to fragrances, while the beeswax absolute (Absolue cire d’abeille) harvested from honeycombs of Apis mellifera, grown in France, is used for an ethically-harvested animalic note in scents. This absolute is rare, produced by solvent extraction and due to its surprising thickness does not blend easily in a blend. It can be therefore diluted in alcohol or gently warmed and added to essential oils and allowed to age before being used in a formula. Some suppliers have been also offering a honey absolute instead of beeswax, a lighter and sweeter product.
Phenylacetic acid (otherwise known as α-toluic acid, benzeneacetic acid, alpha tolylic acid, or 2-phenylacetic acid) is perceived as golden and honeyed in minute amounts, urinous in higher concentrations (Kouros, Miel de Bois). Honeysuckle, a flower with natural honeyed nuances traditionally grazed upon by animals (earning it the tag of "goat's vine" in Greek) and sucked clean by small children sometimes, is also imparting sweet, nectarous notes in fragrance similar to the ones that evoke honey. Acacia/Mimosa and aubépine/hawthorn (recreated through the use of p-methoxy benzaldehyde as in Chanel Beige), or some white flowers (orange blossom, jasmine) have a honeyed nuance to their bouquet as well. On the other hand the smooth, decadent scent of honey is especially simpatico in a piquant contrast to the austere formula of a chypre, where it reinforces the other floral notes and mingles with the animal-reminiscent ingredients to give the veil of a hinted sensuality, comparable to a silk bra under a starched shirt.

• Fragrances with Honey Notes (click links for reviews):

Aramis Havana pour elle
Armani Armani Code
Ava Luxe Honey
Ava Luxe Madeline
Avon Mark Instant Vacation Greek Isles
Azarro Orange Tonic
Balenciaga Rumba
Bill Blass Basic Black
Bijan by Bijan
Boucheron Initial
Burberry Weekend for men
Carla Fracci Gisele
Chanel Les Exclusifs Beige (hawthorn/aubepine honey)
Christian Dior Poison
Christian Dior Tendre Poison
Christian Dior Bois d'Argent
Chopard Wish
Coach by Coach
Comme des Garcons Comme des Garcons
Elizabeth Arden Red Door
Estee Lauder Estee super cologne concentree
Estee Lauder Sensuous
Estee Lauder White Linen
Estee Lauder Pure White Linen Light Breeze (hesperidic and light)
Etienne Aigner Private Number
Givenchy Gentleman
Givenchy Ysatis
Gucci by Gucci (the horsebit bottle)
Guerlain L'instant de Guerlain (especially in Eau de Parfum concentration)
Guerlain Rose Barbare
Guy Laroche Clandestine
Isabella Rossellini Daring
Jean Charles Brosseau Ombre Rose L'Original
Jean Louis Scherrer Scherrer 2
John Varvatos John Varvatos for women
Lancome Magie Noire (the most symbolic use of honey notes)
Lancome Tresor Elixir
La Perla La Perla
L'Occitane Eau de Miel/Honey Water (the closest to pure honey)
MAC Naked Honey (reminiscent of linden blossom honey)
MAC Africanimal (peppery, woody honey)
Orlane Fleurs d'Orlane
Paco Rabanne Paco Rabanne pour Homme (sweet fougere)
Prada by Prada
Serge Lutens A la Nuit
Serge Lutens Chergui
Serge Lutens Chypre Rouge
Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque (milk and honey in pipe tobacco)
Serge Lutens Miel de Bois
Sisley Soir de Lune
Shiseido Feminite du Bois
Stella Cadente Miss Me
Thierry Mugler Angel
Thierry Mugler A*men
Tommy Hilfiger True Star Gold
Trussardi Trussardi Uomo
Tom Ford Private Blend Velvet Gardenia
Ungaro Diva
Urban Decay Honey Dust (shimmery body powder that can be licked off)
Valentino Vendetta
Van Cleef & Arpels First
Victoria's Secret So In Love
Yves Saint Laurent Kouros
Several solid fragrances, such as the ones by Roxana Villa, are based on natural beeswax.

Feel free to add more fragrances with honey notes in the comments section!


Please read the following blogs for more on bees and honey:
Roxana Villa atIlluminated Perfume Journal
Trish at Scenthive
Gaia Fishler at The Non Blonde
Beth Schreibman Gehring at www.examiner.com/x-5804-
Donna Hathaway at www.examiner.com/x-4780-


Ref:
Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (1951)
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, (1955)
Carl A.P. Ruck & Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth

Bee illustration ©Roxana Villa. Other pics via Basenotes, Wikimedia commons, castlehounddesigns.com

Mythology Series: the Oak Tree

On occasion of the celtic lunar calendar day of the oak which is on the 10th of June, today I am grabbing this chance to introduce a new feature, the Mythology Series, which will fuse folklore, poetry and some of the most prevalent myths concerning aromatic plants.

The oak tree with its bittersweet timbre has been a symbol of stability and silent might ever since antiquity. It therefore comes as little surprise that it was attributed to Zeus, the mightiest of Gods. In Dodona, the sacred place of Zeus’s worship, where every summer ancient Greek tragedies and comedies are performed anew in its open-air amphitheater, oak trees that seem like they have been growing since the dawn of time reign supreme. Their leaves were crowning the winners of the drama competitions and the chariot races in the glorious past. Today they cast their welcome shade to the weary traveler who has been up the creek towards the ancient oracle, the second in importance in the whole Mediterranean after that of Thebes in Egypt. Legend wants it that two eagles, hatched out of the same egg, flew over the sea; one of them descended in Thebes, the other in Dodona, thus affirming the regal choice of these places of worship.

Contemplating the oak tree, one is transfixed by its hefty circumference, the long-extending branches full of wide leaves, the rough texture of the bark and the lichen that attracts itself on it (Evernia Prunastria or simply oakmoss), of which perfumery has justifiably occupied itself for long. It suffices to catch a hint of that mossiness in famous chypre perfumes like Dior’s Miss Dior, Cabochard by Gres, Carven’s Ma Griffe and Chanel No.19 to realize how the grandeur of the oak tree is lending a facet of that characteristic to the ambrosial parasite.

Conversely it is the fruit of the oak tree, βαλανίδι, which has been fed to swine for centuries as cheap supplement to their diet, and even the divinely favoured Ulysses had to witness his companions feed upon them when they were transformed by Circe into said domestic animals. The fuzzy green balls crack open under the nail with a surprising bitter herbal scent to later reveal the more familiar nutty aspects. And the association with might must not have escaped those who onomatized the inner edge of a male organ as βάλανος/balanos (etymologically derived from βαλανίδι)!

In celtic mythology oak stands as a gateway between worlds, or alternatively the vantage point where portals could be erected, while in Norse mythology it is connected to the warlike god Thor. But even in modern lore, oak has never lost its symbolic resonance that ties it with quiet power and mighty dominion. In Gone with the Wind, the tranquil, gentile mansion of Ashley Wilkes and his bride-to-be Melanie, where Scarlett is turned down thus catapulting the plot, is fittingly named Twelve Oaks. Throughout the novel it acts as the idealized place of refuge from the constant turmoil that the war has brought into the lives of the heroes and contrasts with the more cheerful Tara; the latter plantation like the female protagonist comes through thanks to its adaptive powers. When the old and majestic Twelve Oaks crumbles, it takes forever with it the dreams of the old, secure way of life for Ashley and Melanie...

In perfumery oak wood extract can be used to bring aspects of the imposing feeling of the oak tree into woody fragrances for men or women. with dry, liqueur-like accents. Now that oakmoss essence has been heavily rationed and synhetic approximations like Evernyl do not give an adequate substitute, oak wood extract, although less green and mossy, or even fougère-tinged is increasingly used, coupling especially well with wine accents, fruity scents and reinforces vanilla notes. This is how Serge Lutens used it in his Paris exclusive Chêne (French for oak) and in Miel de Bois. Baldessarini Ambré for men is another scent which exploits those facets to good effect. Oak also makes an ilusionary appearence as a top note, interestingly enough, in Eau de Merveilles by Hermès!

A fragrance which plays upon all aspects of the oak tree is Roxana Villa’s Q, a botanical artisanal scent by Roxana Illuminated Perfume, that is dedicated to the endemic oak population of the Californian woods with Q standing for Quercus, the botany name for oak tree (quercus robur). From root to kernel and from branch to bark, Q is anchoring and centering like only an afternoon below the shade of an imposing oak can be. But most importantly, part of the profits goes into the California Oak Foundation preserving that oak population, so that future generations can be ensured of a comparable experience. (You can find Q for sale here).
And when I try to recreate the austere atmosphere of the holy oaks at Dodona, I fall back on burning the old reliable Oak/Chêne candle by Diptyque, whose scent transports my spirit into a land of forever-living lore.

Pic of River Kalamas in Ioannina perfecture, Greece, via ellopos.org