Coming from the depths of the Egyptian age, Le Dieu Bleu exhales its divine and mysterious perfume, as if extracted from a supernatural universe. Intended for the gods, rising up are heady scents of aromatic herbs, saps, roots, and bark, destined to induce a meditative state, with powers of the beyond…its wonderful lively, intoxicating scents of woody honeyed broom, mystical and heady myrrh, green and fresh lentisk, and fruity opoponax, carry us away to the colorful splendors of the temples and frescoes of…Ancient Egypt. — Astier de Villatte

Le Dieu Bleu (one of Astier de Villatte’s Trois Parfums Historiques; see Les Nuits and Artaban) was inspired by kyphi (which I’ve written about before on Now Smell This). Many recipes for this storied scent include: Cyperus longus (with a ginger odor), juniper berries, raisins, wine, honey, resin of the pistachio tree (mastic), Calamus odoratus, broom, rose-scented grass from Egypt, myrrh, henna and mint. To this list, Greeks added cinnamon, nard (spikenard), cardamom, sesame and saffron.

Kyphi, apart from ceremonial and personal use as incense, was ingested as a medicine and made into breath-freshening pastilles…

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Hailed for the incredible lavishness of its formula, no less than twenty-four herbs imported at great expense from the most distant lands, this “royal perfume” was the idol of the wealthy Romans. They enthusiastically soaked themselves with it at every opportunity, as was the fashion of the time. Reinterpreted by Dominique Ropion, Artaban is a pure concentrate of the wonders of the plant universe. Delight in its fragrant scents – bitter and sweet marjoram, cardamom with a spicy fruity taste, nard with earthy, resinous and woody accords, and green and herbaceous calamus with multiple fragrant facets.  — Astier de Villatte

Artaban, one of three fragrances in Astier de Villatte’s Trois Parfums Historiques collection (the others are Les Nuits and Le Dieu Bleu), was inspired by a recipe recorded by Pliny the Elder of a lavish perfume created in Parthia (and used with gusto by ancient Romans). The perfume’s list of ingredients was long: ben nut juice and oil (extracted from the Moringa oleifera), wine, honey, costus, cinnamon, cardamom, mint, myrrh, cassia, styrax, labdanum (rockrose), balsam, aromatic reeds, fragrant rush from Syria, oenanthe (water parsley flower), henna, broom, opoponax, saffron, souchet (tiger nut), marjoram, lotos (the yellowish resin provided by a ferrule from Syria or the seed of the lotus from Egypt) and spikenard (also known as ‘nard’ or Indian lemongrass).

Ancient Romans went even further than today’s biggest buyer of perfume…

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