Achilles and Patroclus

[doomsday_disco]

In the song attributed to Homer, their devotion turns the tide of war. Patroclus is the hidden heart of the warrior, the tender pulse beneath iron and oath. When he falls, the world blackens, grief becomes wildfire, and pride is burned away in the furnace of loss and sorrow.

 

This is love as ordeal and the beloved as mirror of the soul. Nigredo in the shadow of the pyre, calcination in the roar of battle. From mourning rises terrible clarity, bright and merciless as a drawn blade. Love does not soften fate; it forges it.

 

Bronze-bright armor warmed by the sun, salt-wind off the Aegean, crushed amarantos beneath restless feet, and the metallic sting of blood on sand.

[wilhelmscream]

In the bottle, it smells like salty sand and warm metal.

 

I like how summer-y this smells. Like a long day at the beach.

 

And surprisingly soft, considering notes like armor and metallic blood! You'd think it would have more of that coppery tang, and instead I almost get the faintest hint of something soft and sweet, like incense, which makes me wonder if dragon's blood is a part of the blood note?

 

 

[Assimbya]

This one is really fascinating! Clean, sunny, sea air, but with a peculiar sense almost of severity? I get a lot of what I think is the amaranth, a clean, hay-like smell, and then a bunch of salt and metal. As it first goes on I'd say I don't get any blood note, just bright, sand-scoured armor, but then after some time wearing it there's a resinous sweetness which comes through and, though it's not a realistic blood note, it does have an unsettling quality as if all that clean shining metal was becoming sweetened with something more organic. Though at first I was confused a little by this as a scent for Achilles and Patroclus, with some reflection it feels really quite right for them. It makes me just a little uneasy, in a way that I think is right for the love of these two, which is so deeply entwined with brutal violence. I don't think I'll wear it often, but I'm glad to have a decant to contemplate it.

[kinneret_rising]

This is a richly textured scent, slightly metallic, potent. Despite the associations with the Trojan War, it doesn't read to me as overly masculine. It has a scent that makes me think of well-cared for equipment, but not machinery -- this is a more human smell than, say, the BPAL Steamworks scents I've tried. Amarantos, a grain (I think), helps to warm the salt and metallic notes. This is scent of a love that turns the tide of war. Good wear length as well – a scent of endurance.

 

EDIT: 'Amarantos' can apparently relate to a legendary flower or to a grain. Summary from Merriam-Webster: ‘Amarantos is an ancient Greek word meaning "unfading," "immortal," or "unwithering". It is the root of the word amaranth, which refers to both a mythical, everlasting flower and a real, hardy plant with vibrant blooms.’

 

I thought I smelled grains in the mix, but it’s a complex scent, there’s so much in there

Edited Sunday at 04:27 PM by kinneret_rising
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