Smell and the Ancient Senses

223 Pages·2014·2.706 MB·English

by  Mark Bradley

SMELL AND THE ANCIENT SENSES
From flowers and perfumes to urban sanitation and personal hygiene, smell – a sense
that is simultaneously sublime and animalistic – has played a pivotal role in western
culture and thought. Greek and Roman writers and thinkers lost no opportunity to
connect the smells that bombarded their senses to the social, political and cultural status
of the individuals and environments that they encountered: godly incense and burning
sacrifices, seductive scents, aromatic cuisines, stinking bodies, pungent farmyards and
festering back-streets.
The cultural study of smell has largely focused on pollution, transgression and pro-
priety, but the olfactory sense came into play in a wide range of domains and activities:
ancient medicine and philosophy, religion, botany and natural history, erotic literature,
urban planning, dining, satire and comedy – where odours, aromas, scents and stenches
were rich and versatile components of the ancient sensorium. The first comprehensive
introduction to the role of smell in the history, literature and society of classical anti-
quity, Smell and the Ancient Senses explores and probes the ways that the olfactory
sense can contribute to our perceptions of ancient life, behaviour, identity and morality.
MarkBradleyisAssociateProfessorofAncientHistoryattheUniversityofNottingham.
THE SENSES IN ANTIQUITY
Series Editors: Mark Bradley, University of Nottingham, and
Shane Butler, University of Bristol
Like us, ancient Greeks and Romans came to know and understand their world through
their senses. Yet it has long been recognized that the world the ancients perceived, and
the senses through which they channelled this information, could operate differently
from the patterns and processes of perception in the modern world. This series explores
the relationship between perception, knowledge and understanding in the literature,
philosophy, history, language and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.
Published
Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses
Edited by Shane Butler and Alex Purves
Smell and the Ancient Senses
Edited by Mark Bradley
Forthcoming
Sight and the Ancient Senses
Sound and the Ancient Senses
Taste and the Ancient Senses
Touch and the Ancient Senses
SMELL AND THE
ANCIENT SENSES
Edited by
Mark Bradley
Firstpublished2015
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pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Odors–History.2.Smell–History.3.Odors–Socialaspects–History.I.Bradley,Mark,1977-
editor.
QP458.S642014
612.8’6–dc23
2014029291
ISBN:978-1-84465-641-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-84465-642-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-73605-1(ebk)
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CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of contributors x
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction: smell and the ancient senses 1
MARKBRADLEY
1 Smell as sign and cure in ancient medicine 17
LAURENCETOTELIN
2 Ancient philosophers on the sense of smell 30
HANBALTUSSEN
3 Divine scents and presence 46
ASHLEYCLEMENTS
4 Smelling trees, flowers and herbs in the ancient world 60
JANEDRAYCOTT
5 Making scents of poetry 74
SHANEBUTLER
6 Roman urban smells: the archaeological evidence 90
ANNOLGAKOLOSKI-OSTROW
7 Urban smells and Roman noses 110
NEVILLEMORLEY
8 The scent of Roman dining 120
DAVIDPOTTER
9 Foul bodies in ancient Rome 133
MARKBRADLEY
vii
CONTENTS
10 Fragrance in the rabbinic world 146
DEBORAHA.GREEN
11 Smell and Christianity 158
JERRYTONER
12 Missing noses 171
MARKBRADLEYANDERICVARNER
Bibliography 181
Index 200
viii
FIGURES
4.1 Funerary wreath of immortelles from Hawara, Egypt. 65
4.2 Mosaic depicting the abduction of Persephone. 71
6.1 Main outlet of the Cloaca Maxima into the Tiber. 91
6.2 Reconstruction of a house kitchen from Pompeii with the toilet beside
the counter. 95
6.3 Forum Latrine at Ostia. 96
6.4 One of the dead mules in the House of the Chaste Lovers (IX.12.6),
Pompeii. 98
6.5 Downpipe in the House of the Double Atrium, Herculaneum (VI.29). 99
6.6 Embedded dolia for oil at the Villa Regina near Pompeii. 100
6.7 Bakery of Modestus at Pompeii (VII.1.36). 101
6.8 Fullery of Stephanus at Pompeii (I.6.7). 102
6.9 Stabian Baths at Pompeii (VII.1.8.15 – 17.50–51), female section,
caldarium tub. 105
6.10 Main altar in front of the Temple of Jupiter in the forum at Pompeii
(VII.8.1). 106
10.1 CollectionofglassbottlesondisplayatTheCorningMuseumofGlass. 150
10.2a Rectangular ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 152
10.2b Oval-shaped ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 153
11.1 Fifth-century ivory incense box decorated with Hermes awarding the
apple to Aphrodite. 160
11.2 Tenth-century ivory relief showing the death of the Virgin Mary. 167
11.3 Seventh-century incense burner carved with images of Jesus’s life. 169
12.1 Cabinet displaying modern marble and plaster noses that had been
affixed to noseless portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 172
12.2 Basalt bust of Germanicus with its nose chiselled off. 176
-
12.3 Gold solidus of Justinian II Rhinotmetos. 177
12.4 The “Carmagnola Head”, Basilica San Marco, Venice. 178
ix