An old Greek myth about perfumes still wafts through time, the story of how fragrance changed the life of a sailor named Phaon. One day, he ferried the deity Aphrodite across the sea. When he realised who she was and refused payment for the passage, she thanked him by giving him a perfumed ointment. When he applied it, he became young and beautiful, and love was no longer a lost game.

Fragrance brings hope. It is also power, and history is scented with the might of perfumes.

Perfumes have existed in records, tales, myths and legends, almost acquiring a hypnotic enchantment around them.

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Legend often has it that Egyptian queen Cleopatra greeted Mark Antony on her barge with sails soaked in fragrances. It was political power, diplomacy and a tool of love.…