Tiny History – The Institute for Art and Olfaction

Learnings Report: Musk

Drawn from the diminutive and fanged musk deer in Tibet, generations of Chinese and Tibetan housewives used musk to rid themselves of moths, to heal family illnesses, to strengthen the brain, the heart and the senses. Musk was used to perfume the skirts of women in the Hindu Kush (in Afghanistan and Pakistan), and was witnessed consumed as a flavoring for meat by the world’s greatest fabulist, Marco Polo. Polo believed in the stuff’s market potential, and brought a quantity of it to Venice in the late 13th century, suing a customs agent in his efforts to get it into the city.

An Ancient Greek Story About Smell and Animal Sacrifice

Philosopher and poet Empedocles (492 – 432 BC) – to whom we attribute among other things the first conception of the elemental theory of matter (earth, air, fire, water) – was a Pythagorean, and therefore morally opposed to eating or harming animals. He believed animal sacrifice to be a diabolical injustice, even if done in the service of the gods.