It turns out the gods of ancient Greece weren’t just powerful—they were fragrant, too. According to Danish historian Cecilie Brøns, statues of the gods in ancient Greece and Rome were often perfumed and adorned with scented flower wreaths and garlands. Brøns, a curator at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, published her findings in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, shedding new light on how people in antiquity engaged with sacred art.

After analyzing ancient sources, Brøns discovered that it was common practice not only to perfume oneself but also to anoint statues of deities in temples. These scents weren’t like modern alcohol-based perfumes; instead, they were oil- or fat-based balms, which could be applied like a cream. In Mediterranean regions, for example, rose was a popular fragrance ingredient.

Fragrance, Color, and Divine Adornment

The floral wreaths and garlands that decorated divine statues weren’t just visual embellishments—they created a multisensory experience. Although the original scents have long since vanished, Brøns notes that there is surviving evidence in the form of depictions and replicas made of metal, terracotta, and gold. This entire practice of adorning statues was known in antiquity as “kosmesis”, and it included the use of textiles and jewelry to dress the figures.

Statues were also treated with olive oil or beeswax, which not only gave them a lustrous appearance but also protected the painted surfaces beneath.

Brøns emphasizes a fact now widely accepted among scholars: the pristine white marble statues we see in museums today do not reflect how ancient sculpture originally appeared. Whether made of wood, terracotta, or stone, ancient statues were vibrantly painted, offering a far richer visual experience than we once believed.

This research invites us to reimagine the temples of antiquity—not as silent halls of stone, but as vivid, aromatic sanctuaries alive with color, scent, and ritual.