Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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Archilochus is the earliest author who uses the word μύρον (perfume), where he says—

She being old would spare her perfumes (μύρα).

And in another place he says—

Displaying hair and breast perfumed (ἐσμυρισμένον);
So that a man, though old, might fall in love with her.

And the word μύρον is derived from μύῤῥα, which is the Aeolic form of σμύρνα (myrrh); for the greater portion of unguents are made up with myrrh, and that which is called στακτὴ is wholly composed of it. Not but what Homer was acquainted with the fashion of using unguents and perfumes, but he calls them ἔλαια, with the addition of some distinctive epithet, as-

Himself anointing them with dewy oil (δροσόεντι ἐλαίῳ).

Hom. Iliad, xxiii. 186.

And in another place he speaks of an oil as perfumed¹ (τεθυωμένον. And in his poems also, Venus anoints the dead body of Hector with ambrosial rosy oil; and this is made of flowers. But with respect to that which is made of spices, which they called θυώματα, he says, speaking of Juno,—

Here first she bathes, and round her body pours
Soft oils of fragrance and ambrosial showers:
The winds perfumed, the balmy gale convey
Through heaven, through earth, and all the aërial way.
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets
The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets.

Ibid. xiv. 170.