Arabesque Alkemia

Excrements of lions, crocodiles, and swallows? Plutarch sat shaking his head in his small scriptorium in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, desperately trying to remember the numerous ingredients of Kyphi. By Zeus, perhaps he should start taking notes after all, he really wasn’t getting any younger. Four parts frankincense, or was it three? Two parts each of benzoin, mastic, and myrrh, one part galangal or ginger, one part cedar? Or was it sandalwood? Plutarch wiped the sweat from his forehead into his eyes, and everything around him blurred and smudged. He floundered helplessly in the streaks and veils, feverishly calling for his wife Timoxena, wreaking havoc among the violets of oils and bowls of woods and resins that he had lined up on the desk before him for the preparation of the incense. Confused and desperate, his face finally sank into the hazy vapors of the scents.
First, there was this dark mass, creamy sandalwood and sweet medicinal, the woods of warm and noble origin, benzoin resembling resinous honey, within which a cinnamon oil began to draw, still vaguely cocoa liqueur-like.
Fascinated by the forms of bittersweet heaviness, the textures of opaque density, Plutarch reveled between inner contemplation and ancient Egyptian history, while slowly the bitter nuances of spikenard infused the black shimmering cream with earth and balsamic frankincense, mastic and myrrh meandering in the house of Apollo. There, the mist painted ornaments of cinnamon oil and smoky chocolate, bitter-spicy honey and earthy spikenard, red-resinous sandal cream, black benzoin, for six or seven hours in the Temple of Delphi, Arabesque from alchemical Kyphi.

(With thanks to Gschpusi)