Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell

1. Heavenly Scents

1 Heavenly Scents Religion and Smell Smells are thought to reveal things about the objects, people, and places from which they emanate. In their sweeping survey of aroma, Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott remind us that smells are drenched with meaning, often viewed as “intrinsic ‘essences’” with the potential to reveal inner truths.1 Throughout history, such ideas have had a profound resonance, especially in the realm of religious practice. The very existence or absence of scent at particular moments significantly shaped the experiences of the devout and the meaning of religious practices, at both the individual and collective levels. In addition, the act of smelling reveals a great deal about the perceiver of an aroma. Fragrance carried power for good and evil and literally “order[ed] life within the cosmos.”2 Pleasant odors might, on a very basic level, have indicated good foods and health, but they were also associated with virtuous people, tied to ideas of immortality, and even announced divine presence. In contrast, bad smells regularly carried negative connotations, signaling illness, disorder, decay, divine disapproval, destruction, and, ultimately, death. As part of ritual and ceremony in diverse religious traditions, odors could cleanse, purify, heal, ward off, or initiate communion with the Almighty;3 they could also contaminate, pollute, and endanger; at the very least, they could serve as warnings of potential hazards and evil inclinations. Smells have suffused religious practices and are central to decoding their various meanings. From the ancient period, odors, both fair and foul, were used to order and classify human relations in both the social and political spheres. A particular scent could also provide immediate insight on human-divine interactions. cs 26 . CHAPter 1 The work of Lise Manniche, for example, has documented the earliest associations between perfume and religious practice in Egyptian culture. In this tradition many fragrant plants were known as “fruits of the eye of Re” (or Ra), said to have sprung from the sun god’s eye; others were believed to have originated from deities’ bones.4 In the Buddhist tradition, some of these plants were “described as beloved of a particular god.”5 Although the senses were not embedded in early Christianity, by the fourth century even Christian practices had become deeply sensual and the meanings and uses of smell in particular increased dramatically. Professor of religious studies Susan Harvey has charted the emergence of “a lavishly olfactory piety” by the fifth century in Christian expressions, rituals, and associated devotional experiences.6 Incense, previously condemned for its association with pagan rituals, rapidly became a part of every private and public Christian ceremony. Scented oils also progressively gained sacramental usage, being applied to individuals in paraliturgical rites as well as baptismal and other rituals, both to set a chosen group apart and to simultaneously link them to a single god.7 The hagiographical literature of the period also began to emphasize smell. Scents and odors were increasingly mentioned in hymns, homilies, and other texts and manuals. Christianity then spread its aromatic message throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. When the Germanic tribes invaded the empire, its highly perfumed rituals were thoroughly dismantled and, as significantly, corrupted by the foul-smelling hordes. As noted in a number of studies of religion, “Christianity emerged in a world where smells mattered.”8 Jean-Pierre Albert’s Odeurs de Sainteté: La mythologie chrétienne des aromates (1990) has applied the sensual approach of the French Annales historian Alain Corbin, among others, to the Christian imagination of medieval Europe. Unfortunately, much of his work has yet to be translated into English, unlike that of his compatriot Béatrice Caseau. In particular, Caseau has examined religious activity in late antiquity and charted the broad spectrum of odors, their uses and meanings that confronted early Christians, and the ways in which these became appropriated in religious and profane contexts.9 Her work is rich in material evidence, devoting considerable attention to the spice routes, the production of incense and perfumes, recipes for various fragrant concoctions, and, above all, the medical and hygienic uses of smells.10 Together the work of French scholars yet again provided an inspiring foundation for subsequent studies of smell in that period. Perhaps the most comprehensive work on the subject of religion and smell is Susan Harvey’s impressive study Scenting Salvation (2006). Commencing religion And Smell · 27 with the period preceding the rule of Constantine, who legalized...