Smell and the ancient senses / edited by Mark Bradley.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bradley, Mark, 1977- editor.

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Senses in antiquity

The senses in antiquity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Odors--History.

Odors.

Smell--History.

Smell.

Odors--Social aspects--History.

Odors--Social aspects.

Olfactory Perception.

History.

Medical Subjects:

Olfactory Perception.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 210 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2015.

Summary:

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 propriety, 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 antiquity, 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : smell and the ancient senses / Mark Bradley

Smell as sign and cure in ancient medicine / Laurence Totelin

Ancient philosophers on the sense of smell / Han Baltussen

Divine scents and presence / Ashley Clements

Smelling trees, flowers and herbs in the ancient world / Jane Draycott

Making scents of poetry / Shane Butler

Roman urban smells : the archaeological evidence / Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow

Urban smells and Roman noses / Neville Morley

The scent of Roman dining / David Potter

Foul bodies in ancient Rome / Mark Bradley

Fragrance in the rabbinic world / Deborah A. Green

Smell and Christianity / Jerry Toner

Missing noses / Mark Bradley and Eric Varner.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-199) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781844656417

1844656411

9781844656424

184465642X

OCLC:

827261987

Publisher Number:

99961860011