Book 6 — CHAPTER III. INDUSTRY: PERFUMERS, BARBERS, GOLDSMITHS, LAPIDARIES, ETC.
Reading edition
It has been already observed that the shops of the perfumers[632] were, for the most part, situated in the Agora or its neighbourhood, and much frequented by newsmongers and young men of distinction. From this it follows, that they must have been of spacious dimensions; and it is extremely probable that they were fitted up with every attention to show and elegance. They necessarily contained a number of seats and chairs for the accommodation of customers, and there can scarcely be a doubt, that the various unguents, perfumes, oils, and essences, were ranged on shelves, along the walls, in fine jars, vases of Cyprian marble, and boxes of alabaster,[633] sometimes of one piece, with vessels of glass and silver,[634] or fine earthenware, or porcelain, or beautiful sea-shells.[635] The counters were probably of marble or polished stone, as at Pompeii; and the shopman was supplied with the usual paraphernalia of scales and weights,[636] and measures, and ladles, and spoons, and spatulæ, as in modern times. Peron, an Egyptian, the owner of one of these shops, has been 132thought of sufficient consequence to have his name transmitted to posterity.[637]
From the richness and variety of odours made use of by the ancients we may infer, that the fragrance of such an establishment at Athens, exceeded that of Araby the Blest. For every land and every sweet flower that grew supplied some ingredient to the endless stock of the perfumer.[638] There was incense, and frankincense, and spikenard,[639] and myrrh, and oils of saffron and cinnamon,[640] and sweet marjoram,[641] and fenugreek,[642] and roses,[643] and hyoscyamos,[644] and maiden’s hair,[645] and iris,[646] and lilies,[647] and watermint, and rosemary, and eastern privet,[648] and baccharis,[649] and thyme. In truth the Athenians, who were esteemed the inventors of all good and useful things,[650] delighted exceedingly in the luxury of sweet smells, and therefore culled from Sicily, and Egypt, and Phœnicia, and Lydia, and Babylonia, and India, and Arabia, whatever could communicate a pleasing scent to their garments,[651] their apartments, 133or their beards. Even the doves and swallows that flew tame about the house had their feathers drenched with odoriferous essences, which they scattered with their waving wings through the air.[652] This excessive passion for perfumes rendered the favourite articles of it dear, so that of some kinds a cotyla sold for two or five minæ;[653] of others, for ten; while the balm of Gilead, even in the country where it was collected, was valued at double its weight in silver.[654] There were, however, inferior kinds of perfume, some of which were cheap enough, since we find that an alabaster boxful, brought from the East, sometimes sold for two drachmas.[655]
Great use was made of saffron as a perfume.[656] Halls, courts, and theatres were saturated with its odour,[657] and statues[658] were made to flow, like common fountains, with saffron-water. From a great number of other flowers, essences and unguents were likewise prepared; such as our lady’s rose, southernwood,[659] vine-flowers,[660] the narcissus,[661] anis-flower,[662] high taper, betel-leaf, and the jasmine, which, in Persia, was used at banquets and in the baths.[663]
In the preparation of unguents, numerous articles were made use of, either to give them consistency or to modify the scent: among these were the root of the anchusa,[664] palm spatha,[665] butter,[666] sweet-scented moss,[667] and the odoriferous reed.[668]
134Several unguents received their names from the persons who invented them, or from the places whence they were imported, though others were distinguished by appellations which are no longer intelligible: thus, the Megalion or Megalesian derived its name from Megallos, a Sicilian perfumer;[669] the Plangonian from Plango, a female perfumer of Elis.[670] The black ointment, doubtless, received its name from its colour; but wherefore the Sagdas is so called is not known:[671] both these were of Egyptian manufacture. From Lydia was imported the Brenthion,[672] and from Babylonia the Nardon, which disputed the prize with the royal unguent. There was among the Egyptians a perfume called Cyphi,[673] entirely appropriated to the use of the gods, into the composition of which entered the following ingredients; the cyperus, a quantity of juniper-berries, raisins, odoriferous reeds and rushes, the aspalathos, myrrh, wine, resin, and honey, mixed in certain proportions, and reduced to a fine paste. Unguent of roses was preserved by an admixture of salt.[674]
But the perfumers dealt not in odours and essences only, their stock containing every variety of cosmetic for the use of the ladies, who made a complete business of beautifying their faces,[675] which at 135length became wholly artificial, rather a mask than a countenance.[676] They whitened their foreheads, dyed their eyebrows, and fashioned them like arches, painted black the edges of their eyelids,[677] rendered their eyes humid and bright by powder-of-lead ore, spread over their faces the hues of the lily intermingled with the bloom of the rose, adorned themselves with false ringlets, changed the yellow into black, the black into auburn,[678] gave a ruby tinge to their lips, and blanched their teeth into ivory. But the psimmythion,[679] (ceruse or white lead,) which rendered them fair, undermined their constitution, and poisoned their breath. On the subject of rouge, the Greeks had a very poetical and beautiful saying:—“She plants roses in her cheeks,” said they, “which, like those of Locris, will bloom in an hour and fade in less.”[680]
One sort of rouge[681] appears to have been obtained 136from a species of sea-moss or wrake,[682] which some have confounded with the anchusa,[683] though the grammarians enumerate them as things entirely different. One of the commentators supposes the purpurissa to be meant, by which the Romans understood a sort of cheek-varnish, vermilion, or Spanish paint. There was in use a pigment for the eyebrows, called Hypogramma,[684] and the edges of the eyelids were tinged black with Stimmis,[685] an oxyde of antimony, which still constitutes one of the articles of the female toilette in the East. Sometimes the eyebrows were blackened with resin soot,[686] and the eyelashes caused to lie regularly by naphtha,[687] and a sort of paste composed of glue and pounded marble.[688] Another curious cosmetic was, the Adarces,[689] a substance resembling congealed froth, found on reeds and the dry stalks of plants about the ponds and marshes of Cappadocia. It was said to remove freckles, and enjoyed, likewise, great credit in medicine. A preparation composed of the flour of turnip-seed, lupines, wheat, darnel, and chick-peas, was used for clearing the skin; so, likewise, were the Chian and Selinusian earths,[690] which removed wrinkles, and rendered the skin smooth and shining. They were in constant use in the baths. Cassia,[691] honey,[692] pepper,[693] and myrrh,[694] cured pimples and effaced spots; fenugreek[695] whitened the hands and removed sunburns; briony,[696] isinglass,[697] costos,[698] galbanum,[699] lupines, rainwater,[700] 137radishes,[701] and hare’s blood,[702] the biscutella didyma,[703] truffles,[704] cinnamon,[705] linseed,[706] ladanum,[707] iris-roots,[708] white hellebore,[709] Sardinian honey,[710] onion-juice,[711] and spring-wheat, moistened with oxymel,[712] were among the principal preparations for removing moles and freckles, and beautifying the skin. In some parts of Greece elm-juice,[713] expressed at the first putting forth of the leaves in spring, was employed to give clearness and resplendency to the complexion. Almond-paste,[714] also, with the roots of the bitter almond-tree, effaced spots from the skin. Others, for the same purpose, made use of the berries of the wild-vine,[715] and a paste was prepared from lilies which induced fairness, and rendered the face smooth and shining.[716] To protect the complexion from the sun, the whole countenance was varnished, as it were, with white of egg;[717] and some women, possibly rustics, used goose and hen’s grease as a cosmetic.[718] The roots of the spikenard, when imported from the East, usually retained about them a little of the soil in which the plant had grown:[719] this was carefully rubbed off, and having been passed through a fine sieve, was used for washing the hands, as it probably retained something of the fragrance of the plant. Rose leaves, reduced to powder, were sprinkled over persons as they issued from the bath, particularly about the eyes, to heighten the freshness of the face.[720] To communicate additional sweetness to their persons, Greek ladies sometimes wore about their necks carcanets of rose pastilles[721] instead of jewelled necklaces, into the composition 138of which, however, several other ingredients entered, as nard, myrrh, costos, Illyrian iris, honey, and Chian wine.
The dentifrices[722] of the Greeks consisted chiefly of the purple fish, burnt with salt, and reduced to powder;[723] the Arabic stone,[724] calcined in like manner; and pumice-stone.[725] Asses’ milk was used as a gargle to preserve the teeth.[726] The toothpicks[727] most commonly used were small slips of cane, or green branches of the lentiscus,[728] the ashes of which were likewise mingled with all kinds of tooth-powder. The citron,[729] eaten as a remedy for longing, was thought to render the breath sweet. There was a kind of ointment prepared of saffron, which, mingled with water, they employed to restore brilliance to eyes which had lost their colour.[730] A pomatum, composed of oil and the husks of filbert-nuts burnt and reduced to powder, was used in infancy to change blue eyes into black.[731]
The barbers, who, both in locality and repute, were next-door neighbours to the perfumers, enjoyed much the same sort of reputation as they do in modern times. In their shops scandal was fabricated, and news, good and bad, put into circulation. It was at a barber’s in the Peiræeus that some stranger first disclosed the intelligence of the defeat in Sicily, thereby bringing the longue-tongued shaver into the greatest trouble; for as he straightway ran up to the 139city and gave vent to the evil tidings, he was apprehended and put to the torture, in order to discover the real author of what was supposed to be an atrocious fabrication.[732] But that which sometimes thus brought them into straits, proved most commonly a source of profit, since to hear their laughable stories and anecdotes many more persons congregated under their roofs than stood in need of new wigs or curling-irons,[733] and probably got shaved by way of compliment to the master of the house. Such of them as were remarkably unskilful sought to make up for their awkwardness[734] by the number and elegance of their razors, and the large size of their mirrors.[735] But it was not, we are told, unfrequent for men to get shaved by some humble practitioner,[736] with one razor and a cunning hand, and afterwards to lounge into the more dashing shops, to put their curls in order before the large mirrors which adorned the walls.[737]
If we may judge by the works of art that have come down to us, however, the barbers of Hellas generally understood their business in great perfection, since nowhere do we find more shapely heads or finer curls than on the statues of antiquity.[738] Even here, however, we discover few traces of that 140variety in the manner of cutting and dressing the hair,[739] for which they were chiefly distinguished. While the beard[740] was worn, their principal occupation must have been the clipping, curling, and perfuming of it; but afterwards when persons shaved in order to appear young,[741] and had learned to cover their bald pates with wigs,[742] their business grew to be much the same as it is at present. Their arts were necessarily in great request among the ladies, for whom they contrived false eyebrows,[743] and innumerable dyes for giving whatever colour they desired to the hair, rendering it luxuriant and preventing it from turning grey. Hog’s lard and even bear’s grease mixed with powder of burnt filberts[744] were then in great request for strengthening and restoring the hair, together with onion-juice,[745] olives steeped in wine,[746] myrrh,[747] wild-olive oil[748] mingled with water, according to Aristotle,[749] the glutinous humour of snails obtained by passing a needle through them, and immediately 141applied to the roots of the hair,[750] a bruized cabbage-leaf,[751] a hare’s head reduced to ashes,[752] the ashes of the asphodel-root,[753] burnt frogs,[754] and goat’s hoof,[755] Naxian stone,[756] halcyonion,[757] burnt walnuts,[758] and oil of pitch.[759] The soot of pitch restored fallen eyelashes.[760] Among the depilatory preparations[761] used by ancient barbers may be enumerated the fumitory,[762] the scolopendra thalassia,[763] oak-fern,[764] juice of vine-leaves,[765] orpiment,[766] flour of salt,[767] sea-froth,[768] and the blood of the chamelion.[769]
To dye tresses auburn,[770] a colour much admired by the Greeks, they pounded a quantity of the leaves of eastern privet[771] in a mortar, and then steeping it in the juice of fuller’s-herb, applied the preparation to the hair. The same effect was produced by a decoction of lotus stems,[772] or of the herb lycion.[773] As black hair, however, obtained the preference of the majority, partly[774] perhaps because it better suited their complexions, the number of recipes for giving it that hue is very great. Among the most remarkable substances employed for this purpose we may mention the ampelitis,[775] a black earth imported from Seleucia, in Syria, and the sory,[776] a mineral found chiefly in Egypt. To these may be added decoctions of wood-blade,[777] myrtle, and myrtle-berries,[778] ivy,[779] and dwarf-elder berries,[780] sage,[781] mulberries,[782] and palm-spathæ,[783] as also cypress cones, boiled in 142vinegar.[784] There prevailed an opinion in Italy[785] that the birds which fed on the berries of the smilax or yew-tree became black, though we do not find, that the barbers had thought of introducing them among the hair dyes.
Another class of tradesmen who selected the Agora[786] or its neighbourhood, for their residence, was the goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, and lapidaries, who were possibly of more importance in the ancient than the modern world,[787] since a much greater quantity of the precious metals was then wrought up into plate, whether for the temples, chapels and sanctuaries of the gods,[788] or for private individuals.[789] How much or how little of the articles they produced could be seen at one time in their shops, it is now impossible to determine; but if their practice resembled that of the moderns, it would be difficult to imagine a greater blaze of magnificence[790] than must have met the eye upon entering their establishments,—where piles of gold and silver vessels[791] of all forms and dimensions, some burnished[792] and plain, others embossed 143with every variety of figure in high or low relief, others crusted with seed pearls,[793] or brilliants, or set with gems[794] of every shade and hue, from the ruby, the emerald, and the hyacinth, to the turquoise, the chrysoprase, the amethyst, the beryl, and the jasper, might be beheld rising to the ceiling.
Occasionally articles of plate of enormous size were manufactured,[795] such as cisterns,[796] or vases, or tripods, or salvers, or goblets of gold or silver, presented as offerings by whole cities or communities to some divinity. In these cases the workmanship was very frequently so elaborate and exquisite as to be still more costly than the materials. Entire landscapes, including innumerable figures and objects were sometimes represented on the swell of a vase or goblet: Bacchanalian processions, for example, with whole troops of satyrs and mænades moving along some wooded valley, or desert mountain, or rocky shore, at the heels of the Seileni and Dionysos, groups of nereids, nymphs, and tritons, sporting in the warm sunshine, on the unruffled expanse of ocean; and sacrifices, marriages, chariot-races, and chorusses of youths and virgins, moving through the mazes of the dance, around the altar of Apollo or Artemis. It is also to Hellenic goldsmiths that we are evidently to attribute those marvellous productions of art reckoned among the most boasted possessions of the Persian kings, such as that vine of gold,[797] with its vast grape clusters, imitated both in size and colour by the most precious gems, which formed a canopy over the royal couch, or that golden platane-tree[798] and other vine, 144which, rising from behind the throne, stretched its branches, tendrils, and leaves of gold aloft over the monarch as he sat in state to give audience to his people. Here the bunches of grapes in various stages of ripeness were represented by emeralds, Indian carbuncles, and other precious stones of the richest and most dazzling hues. These things we know were not the works of Persians, having been presented to Darius by Pythios, the Lydian, who, doubtless, caused them to be fashioned by Grecian artists. What may have been the exact dimensions of this platane-tree we know not; but, no doubt, Antiochos took an orator’s licence, when, in an assembly of the Arcadians, he described it as too diminutive to afford shelter to a grasshopper.[799]
We may here perhaps with propriety make mention of that multitude of golden statues[800] which thronged the temples of Greece. For it is not true, as Lucian pretends, that the Hellenic gods and goddesses were contented to shroud their beauty in marble, bronze, or ivory, while Mithras exhibited his rude visage, and Anubis his dog’s snout, in gold.[801] Even private individuals had statues erected to them of this precious metal; and there were not wanting 145those who, like Gorgias, at their own expense did the same honour to themselves.[802]
But the variety of articles thus composed of the precious metals was so great as almost to defy description.[803] There were candelabra,[804] thrones,[805] and chairs, shields,[806] basins and ewers,[807] flagons, censers, goblets in form of walnut-shells, ladles,[808] spoons, vinegar-saucers,[809] with almost every other article of the table. Crowns, likewise, for the heads of statues of princes, and successful generals, and other individuals whom the public desired to honour; with bread[810] and work baskets probably in filigree, clasps,[811] and spindles[812] for ladies, with armlets, anklets, bracelets, rings, necklaces of carbuncles,[813] earrings,[814] and circlets for the head. That these articles were usually formed with much taste and elegance we may infer from the fact, that artists of the greatest respectability were employed to make designs for them, while 146even the engravers of cups and goblets, as Mys, for example, sometimes acquired great celebrity.[815]
The ancients understood well the art of washing and plating articles formed of the inferior metals with gold and silver, as well as many ingenious devices for soldering, mixing, varying the colours, frosting the surface, and inlaying and flowering one metal with another. Statues in Attica were commonly lacquered with gold;[816] and, from the remotest antiquity, the art of gilding appears to have flourished in Greece, since we find mention of it in Homer, who speaks of gilding[817] the horns of victims offered up to the gods. The ancients, unquestionably, employed much thicker gold leaf in this process than the moderns; from which it has been inferred, that they were incapable of reducing it to greater tenuity. But, besides that, when the leaves were too thin, the quicksilver which they employed as a glue appeared through, and dimmed the splendour of the gold, they seem to have aimed at that very duration which causes us to admire the fragments of their gilding that still exist:—in the subterraneous chambers, for example, of the Villa Borghese on the Palatine hill, where the figures in gold scattered over a ground of celestial blue, look as fresh as if just laid on.[818] Metals of all kinds were likewise gilt—as copper, and silver, and bronze. In gilding marble the leaf was attached to the stone with white of egg, which was likewise employed, instead of quicksilver, 147by dishonest workmen, who could thus make use of a much thinner leaf.[819] The moderns in gilding marble substitute the juice of garlic and figs. The practice of gilding wood and leather was also common in antiquity, as we find mention of gilt wooden statues and beads,[820] and harness, and sandal-thongs. The walls and roofs of chambers were covered, moreover, with gilding, and this ornament was laid as well on wainscot as stucco.[821] The conjecture of a modern writer,[822] that the ancients were acquainted with the art of gilding in ormolu seems to be unfounded.
One of the minor, but most flourishing, branches of the goldsmiths’ trade seems to have been the making and setting of rings,[823] for which the Greeks indulged an extraordinary fondness. They accordingly had them of every form and material. Some persons, for example, wore a plain gold, or silver, or even iron, hoop; others a silver ring encircled by a narrow band of gold, or a gold ring with a band of silver, or an iron ring inlaid with gold.[824] Some persons were satisfied with a bronze ring, or one of gilt iron,[825] which they wore apparently in memory of Prometheus, who, to preserve Zeus’ word unbroken, was fabled to bear on his finger an iron ring set with a piece of Caucasian stone as a signet, so that, by a divine sort of quibble, he might for ever be said to be chained to Caucasus.[826] Others, again, delighted in rings of amber,[827] white or yellow, or ivory, or porcelain, 148at least these were fashionable in Egypt. Sometimes, they wore silver rings with signets of gold, or the contrary. Mention, too, is made of a ring formed entirely of carnelian, which, to preserve it, was encircled by a narrow hoop of silver, and set with a golden signet.[828]
Jugglers sold to persons of large faith rings[829] that would cure the colic;[830] and articles of this description with magic and talismanic virtues appear to have been at all times abundant and in great request.
Of signets[831] the most ancient would appear to have been small bits of wood, which, having been worm-eaten in a grotesque or fanciful manner,[832] were cut and polished, and used by some rough Thane for a crest, in memory of which practice precious stones were in after ages engraved so as to imitate exactly these rude materials.[833] In process of time nearly every variety of precious stone[834] came to be engraved for rings and seals.[835] Of these the most remarkable was the carbuncle, in colour like a ripe mulberry, which when held up in the sun glows 149like a flame or burning coal,[836] probably the reason why it was supposed to shine in the dark like a lamp.[837] Under this name many gems known at present by different appellations seem to have been included, as the ruby,[838] whose proper colour is a cochineal red of surpassing richness, admitting, however, occasionally, various intermixtures of blue, producing the rose-red ruby, the former of a full carmine, or rose colour, the latter tinged with a mixture of blue; the rubacelle whose glowing red is dashed with a cast of yellow; the true and the sorane garnet; the rock ruby of a violet red; the almandine and the hyacinth, now confounded with the amethyst. Next to the above was the carnelian[839] of a deep ensanguined hue, chiefly obtained from the island of Sardinia: the jasper of a dark green, with spots of many colours, the sapphire blue bespangled with gold.
Another gem held in high estimation by the ancients was the emerald,[840] the exquisite colour of which, generally the most intense green, was supposed to be more grateful to the eye than the sight of vernal woods or meadows. For this reason many persons selected it for seals in preference to all other stones.[841] Even the lapidaries employed in cutting it were believed to have their vision improved by its refreshing virtues. All emeralds, however, are not of one hue, but exhibit every possible shade of green, from the dusky tint of the 150olive leaf to the pale verdure of the acacia.[842] The Greek jewellers appear to have judged of the genuineness of this stone by plunging it into clear water: for if it were a true emerald it would, they thought, impart its colour to the whole of the surrounding element; if not, a small part only of it would be tinged.[843]
The ancients possessed a species of bastard emerald, found in vast blocks, so that we read of an emerald obelisk in Egypt, which, though consisting of but four pieces, rose to the height of sixty feet.[844] Of this stone, probably, was the famous pillar which adorned the entrance of the temple of Heracles at Tyre.[845] Of real emeralds the largest known does not exceed six inches in length, and two in diameter. It may be observed, that much pains and labour were expended in bringing the emerald to its lustre.[846]
The lyncurios or modern hyacinth is enumerated among the seal gems.[847] Its colour is that of flame with an intermixture of deep red, though it is sometimes found of a full saffron hue, or even resembling amber. It has by several writers been supposed to be the tourmaline. The lyncurios was exceedingly hard and difficult to work. They likewise cut and engraved for seals the amber, which Theophrastus describes as a native mineral; the hyaloides, the omphax, the crystal,[848] the sardonyx, the agate, the onyx, and the amethyst.[849] A gem of extraordinary beauty was once found in the gold mines of Lampsacos, which, having been engraved by a Tyrian lapidary, was presented to the Persian King.[850]
151Respecting the various processes by which precious stones were engraved, the ancients have left us but a few scattered hints. It appears certain, however, that they polished precious stones with emery,[851] and possessed the lapidary’s wheel, with all the finer tools at present in use, including the diamond point,[852] which there is reason to believe they likewise fixed on the wheel.[853] At any rate, they contrived with the instruments they possessed to engrave figures, as of lions, heroes, bacchantes, caryatides, trophies,[854] both in relief and intaglio, which for beauty and delicacy have never yet been equalled. It was at one time a question whether or not they were acquainted with the microscope,[855]—though how they could engrave without it figures which we require its assistance distinctly to perceive, seems somewhat difficult to comprehend. The gem, for example, called the seal of Michael Angelo, in the French king’s cabinet, though it does not exceed half an inch in diameter, contains fifteen figures most elaboratelyelaborately wrought.[856] A private gentleman at Rome possessed a wolf’s tooth on which was a representation of the twelve gods.[857] Cicero commemorates an individual who had written the whole Iliad in characters so minute and in so small a compass, that it could be contained in a walnut-shell.[858] Myrmecides, the Milesian, and Callicrates, the Lacedæmonian, manufactured ivory chariots so small, that they could be covered with the wing of a fly; and wrote two verses in gold letters on a grain of sesame.[859]
We find mention, however, of burning-glasses as 152early as the age of Socrates;[860] and a number of lenses, more powerful than those employed by our own engravers, have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum.[861] We may here, also, remark by the way, that the Greek astronomers appear to have been acquainted with the telescope.[862]
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