Scents and sporting traditions: a matter of skin, sharing, and the Ideal

Did you know that fragrant materials (and perfume more broadly) were an essential component of the sporting traditions of Antiquity?

The Olympics, which began in 776 BC, come to us straight from the ancient era. They derive their name from Olympia, one of the major sanctuaries where these sports competitions took place. Initially designed to bring together Greek peoples who were a little too prone to war, these games attracted many athletes, as much for the high-value prizes at stake as for the prestige associated with certain competitions. Four sanctuaries in particular recognized the merit of their winners in a purely symbolic way (by means of a plant wreath). Each sanctuary had its own: laurel in Delphi, olive in Olympia, pine in Corinth, and… celery in Nemea! A distinction that one can easily imagine to be the origin of the French expression "reaping all the laurels." The prestige of these competitions was such that for an athlete, just showing up was enough to ensure a certain reputation. These Games were immensely successful and lasted more than 1,000 years, before being abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I… and restored in the 19th century by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Cosmetic ritual of the ancient athlete…

The natural environment of Greece at the time offered populations a quantity of aromatic plants and vegetable oils (in which these aromatics were infused – the precursors of a method later called enfleurage). The trade routes opened by Alexander the Great added a whole host of new scents to this pool: sandalwood, cinnamon, nutmeg, and benzoin in particular, which allowed the Greeks to give their beauty rituals a particularly refined turn. While men and women in society were accustomed to perfuming their bodies with iris or marjoram oil after public baths, the athlete was not to be outdone…

In Antiquity, the athlete’s body was an ideal of beauty and strength, a source of inspiration for artists (sculpture, painting), and its hygiene was impeccable. Sculpted by gymnastics and tanned by practicing outdoor sports, the Hellenic athlete’s body was also anointed with perfumed oil, which they would scrape off with a strigil (or scraper) once their exercises were completed. Indeed, the athletes of the time prepared their bodies for effort by coating their limbs with olive oil—known for its protective functions. Then, to protect themselves from sun damage, they would sprinkle themselves with sand before training for running, long jump, or javelin throwing… This mixture of oil, sweat, and sand called "gloios," once scraped off, was then collected by the gymnasium caretaker and resold as fuel for lamps. This is proof of how precious oil was at that time, as well as the highly valued status of the athletes of antiquity!

To finalize the rigorous work of the gymnasium games, body care extended to baths scented with ambrosia, "recovery" massages with fragrant oils, and hair and beard care. Or how perfumes and physical culture already went hand in hand under the Greek banner of perfect Beauty.

Perfumes and Sport today: emotions that are shared

While the imagery of the ancient hero and the ideal of beauty and strength they represent continues to greatly inspire perfume creators in the modern world (Kouros by Yves Saint Laurent, Eros by Versace, or even Invictus by Paco Rabanne, to name but a few), there is another dimension that the two spheres share (almost) without knowing it: that of sharing.

As mentioned previously, these sports competitions had the underlying function of moving the struggle from the battlefield to the arena and creating a peaceful gathering between nations. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are currently being prepared in the French capital, are pushing this desire for openness and proximity to the public even further by making certain events accessible that were not previously (such as the marathon), by allowing everyone to be an actor and not just a spectator of the Games (through open events, the Volunteers program, or the Paris 2024 Club), or by bringing the Olympic and Paralympic Games together under a single emblem. An ambition that is in the worthy heritage of the Greek Olympics in terms of surpassing oneself, uniting peoples, and sharing great collective emotions.

Each host country of this immense event brings a touch of culture to discover. While we remember the iconic Brazilian flip-flops or the winter mittens from previous editions, we at Estéban firmly believe that the scented product, a true standard-bearer of French craftsmanship, has the potential to become the iconic product of these Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Perfume, ambassador of our emotions

If we love perfume (body or home) so much, it is because beyond revealing a part of our personality, our tastes, and our current desires, it possesses the power to transport us emotionally into our memory and take us on a journey into our past.

This "magical" power has a (partially) biological explanation: our sense of smell is directly linked to our memory and our emotions through the very constitution of our nervous and olfactory systems. Indeed, olfactory information, once generated (following the detection of odorant molecules in the air), is sent directly to the parts of our brain involved in sensory perception (piriform cortex), memory (hippocampus), and emotions (amygdala complex). Once this circuit is complete, the information is finally processed by the part of our brain responsible for the conscious perception of the scent (less than a second after we start smelling it), and decision-making (approaching, moving away, buying, etc.) can take place. In short, the feelings, emotions, and memories linked to a scent occur even before they are identified by the conscious part of our brain. That shows just how powerful the evocative power of perfume is!

While it is sometimes involuntary (we remember the famous madeleine scene in Proust’s Swann's Way), this evocation can be done knowingly, through cognitive effort (e.g., remembering one's grandmother's perfume) or through objects containing the scent associated with the memory one wishes to summon.

This year, at Estéban, the emotions stemming from the biggest international sporting competition of the year will be tinged with a fragrant trail that we will return to summon, share, and renew at will, thanks to an exclusive collection of official licensed Paris 2024 products, to be discovered now.

Sources:

• Le grand Livre du parfum pour une culture olfactive (NEZ Culture)
• Miroir, mon beau miroir, Une histoire de la beauté, by Dominique Paquet
• Les Jeux olympiques de l’antiquité, The Olympic Museum
• Fact sheet "The Olympic Games in Antiquity" from the IOC