Perfumery and kindred arts

A beautiful passage from Perfumery and kindred arts : 
a comprehensive treatise on perfumery 
by R.S.Cristiani
1877

"The Greeks, whose deities were as numerous as the stars, almost always associated perfumes with the presence of the gods and goddesses, and attributed skill in the compounding of perfumes to the marvelous, and gave the name of magicians to those who prepared them.

Venus is described as sprinkled with perfumes, and Pallas (Athena), the goddess of wisdom, anointed with oil when practicing the exercises of the palastra, and to their use is attributed the great beauty of Helen of Troy.

Perfumes were generally supposed to possess great medicinal virtues, so much so as to cause the recipes for many of the most celebrated essences and cosmetics 
to be inscribed on marble tablets in some of their temples. The rose in those days was considered no less beneficial than beautiful, and formed the basis of many remedies."