Osmé: A Cultural History of Fragrance is an online journal focused on the historical, social, and cultural movements that shape scent culture and influence the fragrance industry.
Ancient Greek myths link aromatic plants with queer desire, sacred ecology, and tragic metamorphosis. Believed to hold Pneuma and Archē, fragrant plants embodied powerful emotions made material. Stories of Ampelos, Hyacinthus, and Narcissus show how queer youths became botanicals, blending love, loss, and divine jealousy while revealing the fragile, celebrated, and perilous place of queer men in Greek thought.
Every summer in ancient Athens, strange gardens emerged in courtyards and on rooftops. Seedlings were precariously sown into handfuls of soil within clusters of broken pottery.
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