Stypsis: Some Shared Technical Vocabulary of Perfumery, Dyeing and Alchemy

Stypsis (στῦψις) and related terms (στύμμα, στύφω and compounds) occur in Greek and Latin texts about perfumery by, e.g., Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder and Galen. Sometimes they are used in a non-technical way to denote the property of astringency, i.e., the puckering, dry-mouth feeling associated with red wine, tannin-rich teas, and alum (a common double sulphate salt of aluminum and another cation). They are also used in technical contexts to describe ingredients and processes related to a part of the perfume making process. This process is called stypsis, and its purpose is to prepare an oil for receiving the desired scent by introducing ingredients into it called stymmata. For several centuries, translators have rendered the term stypsis with a word in the target language that denotes a process of thickening. In this paper, I show that such translations are misleading, and propose a novel reading.