Historic Headlines Episode 33: Phalon’s Perfume

These are my notes from the podcast. (episode not yet released)

I Love U – Phalon’s new perfume
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It would be a gross libel to say that ladies use tobacco
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SWEET ALISSUM
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From Wikipedia: Alyssum

From Wikipedia: Elysium

Elysium or the Elysian Fields (Ancient Greek: Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, Ēlýsion pedíon) is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

The Elysian Fields were, according to Homer, located on the western edge of the Earth by the stream of Okeanos.^[1] In the time of the Greek poet Hesiod, Elysium would also be known as the “Fortunate Isles“, or the “Isles (or Islands) of the Blessed”, located in the western ocean at the end of the earth.^[1]^[7]^[8] The Isles of the Blessed would be reduced to a single island by the Theban poet Pindar, describing it as having shady parks, with residents indulging in athletic and musical pastimes.^[1]^[2]

The ruler of Elysium varies from author to author: Pindar and Hesiod name Cronus as the ruler,^[9] while the poet Homer in the Odyssey describes fair-haired Rhadamanthus dwelling there.^[6]^[7]^[10]^[11] “The Isle of the Blessed” is also featured in the 2nd Century comedic novel “True Story” by Lucian of Samosata.

POISONING THE BLESSED AIR
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DOVE-LIKE EYES sparkle
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Hanging gardens of Babylon

Burea of the Home Department
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Immortal Fragrances – Flowers are ephemeral
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Ghosts of Perfumes would be the proper appellation
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Incense to the Adorable
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Bottled Bliss – the Bacchanalian
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Voluptus Suprema
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From the 1859 book Table Traits by John Doran:

In refined society, a person using the ordinary perfumes
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See Naples and die
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The sweetest mouth in the world
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CLINGING to every thread it touches
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WORDS THAT BREATHE
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When Youth and Beauty Meet
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When youth and beauty meet to chase the glowing hours
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From Bartleby.com:

Lord Byron (1788–1824). Poetry of Byron. 1881.

II. Descriptive and Narrative
Waterloo

(Childe Harold, Canto iii. Stanzas 21–30.)

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium’s capital had gather’d then
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 5
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell;
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

Did ye not hear it?—No; ’twas but the wind, 10
Or the car rattling o’er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet—
But, hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more, 15
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm! Arm! it is—it is—the cannon’s opening roar!

Like a fragrant oasis after a tract of barren desert
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FRANCE SNUBBED BY AMERICA
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From Wikipedia:

Amour-propre (French, literally “self-love“) means loving oneself, whereas in philosophy it is a debated theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that esteem must be found by the approval of others first. Rousseau contrasts it with amour de soi, which also means “self-love”, but which does not involve seeing oneself as others see one. According to Rousseau, amour de soi is more primitive and is compatible with wholeness and happiness, while amour-propre is a form of self-love that arose only with the appearance of society and individuals’ consequent ability to compare themselves with one another. Rousseau thought that amour-propre was subject to corruption, thereby causing vice and misery. But in addition, by guiding us to seek others’ approval and recognition, amour-propre can contribute positively to virtue.^[1]

The term amour-propre predates Rousseau and is found in the writings of Blaise Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Pierre Nicole, Jacques Abbadie and many others.^[2] Pascal detested self-love, self-esteem, ego, vanity as well perhaps, which are interchangeable terms for him, because it puts the self in the place of God. He suggested it was unfair that we are born with the desire to be loved by others, but unavoidable due to the consequence of the Fall, or original sin. Christianity was the only true remedy to this wretched state of man known as amour-propre.^[3]

THOUSANDS of factories in various parts
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Cleopatra, on the Cydnus
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From Shakespeare’s Words
Antony and Cleopatra, Act II Scene II

MAECENAS
Welcome from Egypt, sir.
ENOBARBUS
Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas.
My honourable friend, Agrippa.
AGRIPPA
Good Enobarbus.
MAECENAS
We have cause to be glad that matters are so
well disgested. You stayed well by’t in Egypt.
ENOBARBUS
Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance
and made the night light with drinking.
MAECENAS
Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast,
and but twelve persons there. Is this true?
ENOBARBUS
This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had
much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily
deserved noting.
MAECENAS
She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be
square to her.
ENOBARBUS
When she first met Mark Antony, she
pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
AGRIPPA
There she appeared indeed! Or my reporter
devised well for her.
ENOBARBUS
I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were lovesick with them. The oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggared all description. She did lie
In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,
O’erpicturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature. On each side her.
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling cupids,
With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
AGRIPPA
O, rare for Antony!
ENOBARBUS
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’th’ eyes,
And made their bends adornings. At the helm
A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthroned i’th’ market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to th’ air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.
AGRIPPA
Rare Egyptian!

The houris at Mahomet’s paradise
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From Wikipedia:

Houris^{[note 2]} are women who will accompany faithful Muslim believers in Paradise.^[1] Muslim scholars differ as to whether they refer to the believing women of this world or a separate creation, with the majority opting for the latter.^[2]

From Milton’s Paradise Lost:

CHARACTERISTIC OF A GENTLEMAN – Sir Bulwer Lytton says in his novel of “Pelham“
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Like the Greek fire
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From Wikipedia:

A ship belonging to the rebel Thomas the Slav, using Greek fire against a Byzantine ship 821. 12th century illustration from the Madrid Skylitzes

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire beginning c. 672. Used to set fire to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact with water, and was probably based on naphtha and quicklime. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect, as it could supposedly continue burning while floating on water. The technological advantage it provided was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from the first and second Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire’s survival.

The impression made by Greek fire on the western European Crusaders was such that the name was applied to any sort of incendiary weapon, including those used by Arabs, the Chinese, and the Mongols. However, these mixtures used formulas different from that of Byzantine Greek fire, which was a closely guarded state secret. Byzantines also used pressurized nozzles to project the liquid onto the enemy, in a manner resembling a modern flamethrower.

Although usage of the term “Greek fire” has been general in English and most other languages since the Crusades, original Byzantine sources called the substance a variety of names, such as “sea fire” (Medieval Greek: πῦρ θαλάσσιον pŷr thalássion), “Roman fire” (πῦρ ῥωμαϊκόν pŷr rhōmaïkón), “war fire” (πολεμικὸν πῦρ polemikòn pŷr), “liquid fire” (ὑγρὸν πῦρ hygròn pŷr), “sticky fire” (πῦρ κολλητικόν pŷr kollētikón), or “manufactured fire” (πῦρ σκευαστόν pŷr skeuastón).^[1]^[2]

The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation and debate, with various proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium phosphide, sulfur, or niter. In his history of Rome, Titus Livy describes priestesses of Bacchus dipping fire into the water, which did not extinguish, “for it was sulphur mixed with lime.”

IN Nature’s grand cathedral
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SIC TRANSIT

From Wikipedia:

Sic transit gloria mundi (sometimes shortened to STGM) is a Latin phrase that means “Thus passes worldly glory”.

Origin

The phrase was used in the ritual of papal coronation ceremonies between 1409 (when it was used at the coronation of Alexander V)^[1] and 1963. As the newly-chosen pope proceeded from the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica in his sedia gestatoria, the procession stopped three times. On each occasion, a papal master of ceremonies would fall to his knees before the pope, holding a silver or brass reed, bearing a tow of smoldering flax. For three times in succession, as the cloth burned away, he would say in a loud and mournful voice, “Pater Sancte, sic transit gloria mundi!” (“Holy Father, so passes worldly glory!”)^[2]

These words, thus addressed to the pope, served as a reminder of the transitory nature of life and earthly honors. The stafflike instrument used in the aforementioned ceremony is known as a “sic transit gloria mundi”, named after the master of ceremonies’ words.^{[failed verification]}^[3]^[4]^[5]

A form of the phrase appeared in Thomas à Kempis‘s 1418 work The Imitation of Christ: “O quam cito transit gloria mundi” (“How quickly the glory of the world passes away”).

A Hair Store
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THE NEW PERFUME FOR THE HANDKERCHIEF

FLOR DE MAYO

PAPHIAN LOTION

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NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS

COCIN

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PERSONAL
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Chicago Tribune
May 20, 1868

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June 3rd
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2017
Clashing Over Commerce
A History of U.S. Trade Policy
by Douglas A. Irwin

Louisville KY Daily Journal 1868-03-27 Page 3

Central Flowery Kingdom

From Wikipedia: Kashmir

From Search Kashmir.org: Who hasn’t heard of the Valley of Kashmir?

Lectures in 1868 about Vale of Cashmere:

From Bartleby.com: Vale of Cashmere

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthologyb in 31 Volumes.

Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

India: Cashmere

The Vale of Cashmere

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

WHO has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,

With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,

Its temples, and grottos, and fountains as clear

As the love-lighted eyes that hung over their wave?

Oh, to see it at sunset,—when warm o’er the lake 5

Its splendor at parting a summer eve throws,

Like a bride, full of blushes, when lingering to take

A last look of her mirror at night ere she goes!

When the shrines through the foliage are gleaming half shown,

And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own. 10

Here the music of prayer from a minaret swells,

Here the magian his urn, full of perfume, is swinging,

And here, at the altar, a zone of sweet bells

Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing.

Or to see it by moonlight,—when mellowly shines 15

The light o’er its palaces, gardens, and shrines;

When the waterfalls gleam, like a quick fall of stars,

And the nightingale’s hymn from the Isle of Chenars

Is broken by laughs and light echoes of feet

From the cool, shining walks where the young people meet. 20

Or at morn, when the magic of daylight awakes

A new wonder each minute, as slowly it breaks.

Hills, cupolas, fountains, called forth every one

Out of darkness, as if but just born of the Sun.

When the Spirit of Fragrance is up with the day, 25

From his harem of night-flowers stealing away;

And the wind, full of wantonness, wooes like a lover

The young aspen-trees, till they tremble all over.

When the east is as warm as the light of first hopes,

And Day, with his banner of radiance unfurled, 30

Shines in through the mountainous portal that opes,

Sublime, from that valley of bliss to the world!

From Wikipedia: Wandering Jew

The Wandering Jew is a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century.[1] In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion was then cursed to walk the Earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer’s indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale, as do aspects of his character; sometimes he is said to be a shoemaker or other tradesman, while sometimes he is the doorman at the estate of Pontius Pilate.