|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Frankincense: A Desert Balm
| Article
# : |
13875 |
|
|
Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
|
| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1988 |
832 Words |
| Author
: |
Nigel Groom
Nigel Groom was formerly a British government officer in South
Arabia. His publications include Frankincense and Myrrh—A
Study of the Arabian Incense Trade (Longman: London and New
York). |
While myrrh, a costly perfume material, catered to ancient man's bodily gratification, frankincense was, first and foremost, his gift to the gods. In Christian tradition, the frankincense presented by the Magi to the infant Jesus symbolized divinity.
Incense has been burned for religious purposes since the dawn of history—its fragrant smoke, wafting upward to the heavens, was seen as a pleasing or propitiating offering to the deities and a carrier of men's prayers. In the murals of ancient Egypt, the pharaoh was often depicted with a censer in his hand. Balls of incense were found in Tutankhamen's tomb. And to the Hebrews, incense smoke veiled God's presence in the tabernacle.
Early incenses were usually compounds. "The Lord said unto Moses, take unto thee stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense." Thus were the directions for the first Hebrew incense in the book of Exodus.
Herodotus, the first Greek historian, recorded that in his time (around 450 B.C.), frankincense, myrrh, and other perfume materials were found only in Arabia. He noted that the annual tribute offered by the Arabs to Darius, the Persian emperor, included a thousand talents of frankincense, or nearly 25 tons. For over a thousand years merchants used camels to bring aromatics to the Mediterranean from the distant lands of Sheba. The trade in frankincense became a huge and highly organized commercial operation.
To the Romans, frankincense was the only incense to be burned alone. Demand for it in the expanding empire was prodigious. It was offered at home to the household gods and used lavishly in temples and shrines, at funerals, triumphs, and other public ceremonies.
Frankincense was not taxed at the Roman frontier because it was predominantly used for religious purposes. To this day it is still the main component of most incenses used in religious rituals. But it had other functions, too. In the homes of the very rich, it kept flies at bay and disguised bad smells. It was a fumigant, an ingredient in many medicines, an antidote to poison, and a cure for worms in animals. Today it is burned simply to fill the air with a pleasing fragrance, and Arabians still use it to fumigate their clothes and beards, purify their water with it, and even munch it as a chewing gum.
The trees that produce this valuable commodity belong to the genus
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
