The Ghost of Clytemnestra Awakening the Furies

[Jenjin]

John Downman

An incense to call the Erinyes: opoponax steeped in black wine, spindle tree sap, nightshade accord, yew needles, and a drop of blood.

Black wine with a touch of sticky sap just after application. This ghost is floating in velvety purple darkness. I can detect the darkest, woozy flowers just beyond the moss covered tomb in the midst of a forest. The Ghost of Clytemnestra is elegant and honestly, makes me feel like a raven while wearing it. I can see it being quite useful for ritual or other transformative ventures. Sleek black feathers and rumbling black clouds of fury. I am beautiful and perfect in this moonless night.

(Clytemnestra): "I was slaughtered by the hands of a matricide. See these blows, see them with your heart! the mind asleep is given clear light by the eyes. You licked up many enough things from me, libations without wine, plain offerings of appeasement." Edited November 8, 2016 by Jenjin

[zankoku_zen]

Red wine, a drop of blood, and some herbal undertones. Good throw and wear length.

 

This one is a dark, dominant, assertive blend. For a strong woman that is not afraid to take what is hers. And what isn't hers.

[sprout]

In the imp, the opoponox is forward with more than a hint of the "black " wine.

 

Wet, opoponax is perfumey and almost like hairspray. The Black wine is dominating the scent, however, and strikes a chord between Black currant and blackberry. There's a herbal component beneath, like Baneberry but it's subtle.

 

Dry, the wine recedes a bit, the opoponox is more resiny and maybe there's something like Blood Musk. The herbal component is more evident, it reminds me of sleek, shiny, deep purple berries.

 

For shits and giggles, I goggled spindle tree sap. I've no idea what it smells like, but it is a plant associated with the Furies and is poisonous in excess, consumption of the berries is fatal to sheep, goats, and horses (and children!). In small doses, the berries are medicinal as a purgative.

 

So this blend really grew on me after 3 tests. The Black wine is like nothing else in my huge bottle collection. So I will seek out a full bottle, although I almost blind bought this just because of the mythology association with Furies and Clytemnestra. So I really wanted to like it. Opoponox can make or break a blend for me and I wanted to be sure that the drop of blood wasn't overpowering DBR, is the chief reason I tried a decant first. I really love the black wine aspect here. This reminds me of Insects from the Crimson Peak series, minus the citrus chypre.

Edited December 24, 2016 by sprout

[Epiphany]

I'm still on the hunt for another wine blend that works as well as Halloween Las Vegas does for me. Wet, this is pretty much all wine--bright, bold, cascading. As it dries, the wine is still very much the up-front note, but I also begin to get the yew. An hour plus after application, it's still primarily wine, with a bit of a resinous undertone. I like it quite a bit, but it's still not close to HLV, so I'll just keep my decant.

[WinterSong]

I had really high hopes for this one, as I love opoponax and wine. And I do indeed get wine and herbs in the bottle, but on me, it smells a lot like.... mustard. And I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I do get whiffs of sweet herbally wine from time to time, but when I sniff my wrist? Mustard. I may pass this one on to a friend, and see if she has better luck with it than I did!

[lady_pandora]

Like everybody else, I couldn't resist that name! On me, Clytemnestra starts out red wine, then becomes more pine-dominant for a while, then back to red-wine-dominant again. The throw, in particular, is almost all wine, with the pine hanging out closer to the skin, and I can pick out what I think is the opoponax right on the skin too. This actually has kind of a Yule vibe to me, though it's a dark mysterious Yule.

[Lucchesa]

Red wine is a tricky note on me, but I love opoponax and yes, the name is awesome. The Ghost of Clytemnestra on me is a very dark, blood- and resin-stained wine with some dark evergreen notes grounding it. It's powerful, both in terms of throw and wear length and in its very essence. This is no Alice or Maiden. Clytemnestra evokes ancient blood rituals, links to primordial powers. She doesn't seduce; she enslaves. Do I like it? Not as an everyday scent. I like my opoponax syrupy; everything here is harsh and unrelentingly dark. But I will definitely keep my decant for situations where I need to play a bitch goddess.

 

Here's the link to the image this scent was supposedly based on, but IMO it's not very good. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Downman_-_The_Ghost_of_Clytemnestra_Awakening_the_Furies_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

 

This perfume is a far better work of art than the Downman painting.

[tinyvulture]

Dark wine, with a medicinal sharp note that I think is the yew needles, and a slight metallic blood vibe. This scent is bold and powerful. A victorious gulp of wine after a tough battle. Here for it.