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incense
Well, no, Bill, not exactly. It is believed that the early Christians, in Rome at least, used incense because the Catacombs were actually the municipal cemetery, so they needed some "air conditioning". More to the point, however, was that they inherited the use of incense from the Jews (most of the early Christians were Jews), who used incense in the sacrifices carried out at the Temple in Jerusalem. If you read the regulations for these sacrifices in the book of Leviticus, you will get some idea of why they needed clouds of incense -- the smell must have been horrendous, and not like a barbecue, either. To say nothing of the flies. Speaking of that, there used to be a part of the Catholic liturgical garments called the "maniple", which was a narrow band of cloth, in the same color and material as the chasuble and stole, which was attached to the priest's left wrist. It's original use was to shoo the flies away during the celebration of Mass so they would not contaminate the communion bread and wine.
You mentioned the smells of people in crowds. It used to be the custom, and may be still, in English courtrooms to have a bouquet or nosegay, which the judge carried in and placed on his desk in front of him, also in some municipal processions, some officials carried a nosegay. The original reason was, as you note, the smell of the crowds (or, in the case of the courtroom, the smell of a prisoner brought up from the gaol or dungeon). These nosegays originally contained as much fragrant herbs as flowers, as it was believed that the aroma of the herbs could help overcome the dangerous humours.
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Carpal Tunnel
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why they needed clouds of incense -- the smell must have been horrendous
Amazing how things change with the times! I am sure you are correct BobY! But then in days of deodorants and frequent bathing we were told incense was used as it rises and takes our prayers to heaven with a sweet odor of supplication.
I think you are on the mark and we were fobbed off as the adults are sometimes wont to do with children.
Now as to : custom in courtrooms to have a bouquet or nosegay
The Shorter OED has no entry for nosegay, but Atomica does!
There is also a floral piece called a tussymussy which has to be looked up as two separate words -- it's a small bouquet of casually arranged flowers.
I like that word : tussymussy !
wow
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Dear Bob: your mention of the many sacrifices in the Temple reminded me of an article I read that on two occasions when attempts were made to excavate in vicinity of the Temple gas coming out of the excavation ignited severely injuring workmen. Since there is apparently neither oil or natural gas worth mentioning in Israel, I suspect that the many years of soil pollution by sacrifices can have produced methane in this one spot. Sound reasonable?
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Pooh-Bah
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More to the point, however, was that they inherited the use of incense from the Jews (most of the early Christians were Jews), who used incense in the sacrifices carried out at the Temple in Jerusalem. If you read the regulations for these sacrifices in the book of Leviticus, you will get some idea of why they needed clouds of incense -- the smell must have been horrendous, and not like a barbecue, either.
This explanation may have some merit, but, as I remember it from the Talmud, the incense was a separate offering, brought at a separate altar and at a particular time of day. To my understanding, the animals weren't stacked in dead heaps, but slaughtered and offered. Legally, it was impermissible to derive any pleasure from the fragrance of the incense (which, if you like frankincense, was fragrant, indeed). In any event, they would never have been permitted to rot, as this would have made an unfitting offering. Moreover, the sacrifices were either completely burned (the "holocaust") or eaten, either by the person offering it, or by a priest, depending upon the kind of sacrifice being brought. The blood-and there was a lot of it-was drained off through a pipe that led to the Hinim Valley, below the eastern slope of the Temple Mount. (This is the site of the gates of Hell I mentioned in another post-hell is called "gehinim" in Hebrew. The valley is still called the Hinim Valley, and there is a road sign pointing there on a major thoroughfare below the south-eastern corner of the Old City.) At the end of the pipe, the blood was gathered and sold as fertilizer.
Since there is apparently neither oil or natural gas worth mentioning in Israel, I suspect that the many years of soil pollution by sacrifices can have produced methane in this one spot. Sound reasonable?
Not likely, after over 2000 years. However, the valley between Mt. Zion and the Temple Mount was filled over the centuries-by rubble, when the town was sacked, and by garbage. The latter was intentional: the way the place of the Western Wall (*not* a part of the Temple) was discovered was that people specifically brought their garbage to dump there as a gesture of their dislike of Jews. I would think the methane would more likely have resulted from this long history of refuse disposal (and sewerage which, and I am guessing, would likely have been piped there) than from old sacrifices that were never left to rot in the first place.
***
On another matter entirely, but for the sake of not depleting our dwindling reservoir of posts, does UK "arse" actually come from the Romanish "karsi," after all, and not the plowshare's stubborn friend? (see most recent rhyming slang entry)
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Carpal Tunnel
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The islander wonders: On another matter entirely ... does UK "arse" actually come from the Romanish "karsi," after all, and not the plowshare's stubborn friend?
Considering that the German is Arsch I would doubt it. The US'n pronunciation, without the <r> would be a normal transformation.
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old hand
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BobY asserted: It used to be the custom, and may be still, in English courtrooms to have a bouquet or nosegay, which the judge carried in and placed on his desk in front of him, also in some municipal processions, some officials carried a nosegay. The original reason was, as you note, the smell of the crowds (or, in the case of the courtroom, the smell of a prisoner brought up from the gaol or dungeon). These nosegays originally contained as much fragrant herbs as flowers, as it was believed that the aroma of the herbs could help overcome the dangerous humours.
The alternate explanation I've heard for nosegays was less specific than courtroom vapors ~ since it was custom to empty chamber pots out the window, the gentility carried nosegays to avoid succumbing right there on the street in front of the philistines for whom they were attempting to set an example! Sometimes when I'm frustrated by the ill effects of certain technologies on society, I pause and remember how grateful I am for modern plumbing.
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explanations of incense
Your reaction to an explanation of incense which is different from what the good nuns gave out is not what mine would be. Symbolism is not a zero-sum game; they operate on various levels and all may be equally valid at the same time. What happens in very many cases is that a custom arises from a humdrum and everyday usage or practice. As times change and there is no longer a practical reason for keeping it up, there is the usual human reaction to go on doing the same thing, so people tend, consciously or unconsciously, to find a justification to keep on doing the same thing the same way. And if you have a really inventive fellow around, (like St. Thomas Aquinas, among others) you can assign a symbolic meaning. Hence, when there was no longer need for incense as air freshener, its symbolic meaning equating it with prayers (which had been present all along -- it's mentioned in the Psalms in this context, among other places) became the sole meaning and the former use was relegated to history.
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Pooh-Bah
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It was for more than just the offensiveness of the smell that the nosegays were carried. Right up until mid C19, the majority opinion among the medical profession was that whatever it was that carried disease was actually in the smell itself. This is known as "the miasmic theory of disease." So the herbs, etc in the nosegay were actually being used as a form of disinfectant, rather than as an aid to olfactory aesthetics.
From the 1850s, the belief that disease was carried by minute organisms began to overtake the miasmic theory, and was conclusively proven by Robert Koch in 1896 (or '98 - can't remember!) But there were still some reactionary doctors who held to the miasmic theory well into the C20.
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gentility carrying nosegays
Can't go for this explanation. They had enough to do when going down the street. They wore swords, gloves, and hats (which had to be doffed when encountering an acquaintance) and often carried their handkerchief (lace-trimmed) in their hand. Given the fact that ordinary people (i.e., other than the wealthy) didn't bath very often and no one, not even kings, had their silk and velvet clothes cleaned very often or very thoroughly, body odor was taken for granted which we, in these supposedly politer times of ours, would find insupportable. Then there was bad breath -- people had bad teeth much more than we do and I don't believe they brushed, except for maybe a few effete aristocrats. And given the absence or sewerage systems, or only a primitive form of it, the use of the jakes or the chamber pot by everyone, people were accustomed to the omnipresent stench, to some degree or other, of feces, offals and garbage. I imagine they were so used to the all-encompassing cloud of foul smells from various sources that they didn't notice smells which we would find intolerable if we were carried back in time. It would have been an unusually powerful stench which would get them upset enough to take measures to counter them, and which, to us, would be enough to knock us down.
I too am grateful for modern sewerage systems, as well as washing machines and personal deodorants, but I wonder if we have taken this too far. The other day I found myself curling up my nose as I passed a flowerbed which had been treated to a fresh covering of mulch, which was very fragrant, and I had to remind myself not to be such an urban mollycoddle.
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miasmas
Right on. This was also connected to the theory of medicine regarding humours. Bocaccio adverts to this in his general preface in the Decameron where he is describing the Black Death [bubonic plague] in Florence.
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