Song of Scents

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“The suggestion of wafting aroma, emotional arousal, and the allure of the exotic” (Green 64). For some reason, the only thing this intro section reminded me of was that trope in cartoons where a character starts floating towards a freshly made baked good, like in this clip.


Joking aside, scent really is everywhere in the Bible and rabbinic literature, with the example that stuck out to me being a callback to an Old Testament class I took last semester: offerings to God were burnt not so that He could taste them, but because the odor was pleasing to Him. The confusion of different terms all relating to scents and incense helps solidify this: there wouldn’t be so many different words for the same thing unless it was important enough to deserve precise categorization.

Interesting to see that the instructions for making and anointing with sacred oil indirectly confirms that the ancient Israelites were making and anointing themselves with other oils. Also interesting to see that perfuming was once a women’s industry, until it became profitable enough to justify it falling under the male priesthood (which, again, implies perfume was popular enough to be highly profitable).

Fascinating how perfume is able to change God’s mood and make Him more inclined to listen to His priests without, y’know, smiting them into oblivion (unless they use ‘foreign fire’ to light the incense, like Nadab and Abihu). More dramatically shown with Korah and the rebellion that followed it, where the wrong people offering incense only infuriates God, but the right person calms and soothes Him.

I forgot about just how erotic Song of Songs was, but knowing more about scent now from Ackerman, it’s worth rereading the Song with that in mind. However, Green gets detailed enough opening that particularly horny can of worms, so I’ll be talking about bad smells next. Being shameful or an outcast is to ‘stink,’ or to be so loathsome that even a passing thought (or whiff) will ruin someone’s mood, which is interesting. Also interesting how the seductress of Proverbs ‘stinks,’ in the sense that she’s something to be avoided, despite the fact that she’s described almost entirely using the beautiful scents of the Song.

Once again when discussing the prophets, God likes His incense, but only when it’s done right, with the right intent. I love the “Israel as an adulterous wife” metaphor, and it’s mostly because it’s what led to my favorite Biblical passage, Ezekiel 23:20, but as a poet gotta say, the corruption of the scent metaphor is pretty fucking neat, seeing all the ways it’s turned around and used for sin.

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