Athen. xv. 44. Footnote 654: Dioscor. i. 18. Footnote 655: Lucian. Dial. Meret, xiv. § 2. ----- 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] ----- Footnote 656: Κρόκος. Dioscor. i. 64. Footnote 657: Æl. Spart. Vit. Adrian. c. 18. p. 16. Footnote 658: Lucan. Pharsal. 809. Footnote 659: Ἀβροτόνον. Dioscor. i. 60. Footnote 660: Οἰνάνθαι. Dioscor. i. 56. Theoph. de Caus. Plant. iii. 14. 8. Footnote 661: Dioscor. i. 63. Footnote 662: Ἄνηθον Dioscor. i. 61. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 1. 2. Footnote 663: Dioscor. Noth. p. 442. d. ----- 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] ----- Footnote 664: Dioscor. iv. 23. Cf. Plin. xiii. 1. Footnote 665: Dioscor. i. 55. 150. Footnote 666: From which the unguent obtained the name of βουτύρινον. Dioscor. i. 64. Footnote 667: Βρύον. Dioscor. i. 20. Footnote 668: Dioscor. i. 17. ----- Several 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] ----- Footnote 669: Athen. xv. 42. To this perfume Strattis alludes in his Medea:— ——Καὶ λέγ’, ὅτι μύρον φέρεις αὐτῇ Τοιοῦτον, οἷον οὐ Μέγαλλος πώποτε Ἥψησεν, οὐδὲ Δινίας Αἰγύπτιος Οὔτ᾽ εἶδεν, οὔτ᾽ ἐκτήσατο.— Footnote 670: Poll. vi. 104. Athen. xv. 42. Footnote 671: