Ancient Greek and Roman Statues Were More Than Eye Candy—They Were Also Perfumed

Statues in ancient Greece and Rome looked vastly different from the ones we see in museums today. While most surviving Greco-Roman sculptural artifacts are pristinely white, thousands of years ago, the statues were brilliantly colored and sometimes even adorned with jewelry and garments. New research suggests these ancient statues may also have been perfumed.

After analyzing various texts from ancient Greece and Rome, Cecilie Brøns, an archaeologist and curator of ancient art at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, proposes that Greco-Roman statues were perfumed. As detailed in her study, published March 3 in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, the use of scents would have given viewers a multi-dimensional experience, challenging the notion that the statues were simply a visual artistic expression.

“The modern perception of ancient Greco-Roman sculpture is influenced by approximately two centuries of scholarly studies, which have focused almost exclusively on shape and form, thus convincing us that these artefacts are—and have always been—scentless,” Brøns wrote in the study. “This modern ‘smellblindness’ can possibly cause us to miss a major potential attribute of the objects we study.”

Since physical traces of ancient perfumes on statues are nearly nonexistent, Brøns turned to textual sources. One of her earliest examples comes from the Roman writer Cicero (106–43 BCE), who described a ritual treatment of a statue of Artemis in the city of Segesta. He writes that women “anointed her with precious unguents,” “crowned her with chaplets and flowers,” and “attended her to the borders of their territory with frankincense and burning perfumes.”

Brøns also refers to a text by the Greek poet and scholar Kallimachos (305 to around 240 BCE) which describes the statue of Ptolemaic Egyptian Queen Berenice II (around 267 to 221 BCE) as “yet wet with perfume.” She also points to the Greek philosopher Proklos’ (410 to 485 CE) commentary on Plato’s Republic: “…albeit after pouring perfume over its head, as sacred law requires to be done over the statues in the most holy shrines.”

Furthermore, ancient inscriptions unearthed on the Greek island of Delos, dating between the fourth and second centuries BCE, document the costs of materials used for the “kosmesis,” or adornment, of temple statues. These texts mention things including sponges, oil, linen, wax, and rose perfume.

“Unfortunately, the [Delos] inscriptions usually do not specify exactly how the kosmesis was applied or by whom. Neither do they state whether the kosmesis was applied to all or only specific sculptures in the temples, and whether it was used for the entire statue or only some of its parts,” Brøns admitted. Given that ancient perfumes were imbued into plant oils or animal fats, though, they were probably applied like creams, according to the study. “Yet they do provide the important information that perfume and thus scent was a significant aspect of the statues in the Delian temples,” she continued.

More broadly, the archaeologist also cited the scent emitted by floral decorations used to decorate Greco-Roman statues, a practice testified by both written sources and some archaeological artifacts. While fresh flowers are not the same as perfume, their fragrance would also have contributed to the unappreciated olfactory experience of ancient statues.

Ultimately, “when seeking to approach and understand the ancient experience of sculptures, we need to engage not only our eyes but also our imagination and knowledge about the olfactory dimensions and original sensory staging,” Brøns concluded.

So the next time you stand in front of an ancient Greco-Roman statue, remember that thousands of years before you, its scent may have been as lovely as its form.