Clytie

[Invidiana]

CLYTIE
This Clytie knew, and knew she was undone,
Whose soul was fix'd, and doated on the Sun.
She rag'd to think on her neglected charms,
And Phoebus, panting in another's arms.
With envious madness fir'd, she flies in haste,
And tells the king, his daughter was unchaste.
The king, incens'd to hear his honour stain'd,
No more the father nor the man retain'd.
In vain she stretch'd her arms, and turn'd her eyes
To her lov'd God, th' enlightner of the skies.
In vain she own'd it was a crime, yet still
It was a crime not acted by her will.
The brutal sire stood deaf to ev'ry pray'r,
And deep in Earth entomb'd alive the fair.
What Phoebus could do, was by Phoebus done:
Full on her grave with pointed beams he shone:
To pointed beams the gaping Earth gave way;
Had the nymph eyes, her eyes had seen the day,
But lifeless now, yet lovely still, she lay.
Not more the God wept, when the world was fir'd,
And in the wreck his blooming boy expir'd.
The vital flame he strives to light again,
And warm the frozen blood in ev'ry vein:
But since resistless Fates deny'd that pow'r,
On the cold nymph he rain'd a nectar show'r.
Ah! undeserving thus (he said) to die,
Yet still in odours thou shalt reach the sky.
The body soon dissolv'd, and all around
Perfum'd with heav'nly fragrancies the ground,
A sacrifice for Gods up-rose from thence,
A sweet, delightful tree of frankincense.

Tho' guilty Clytie thus the sun betray'd,
By too much passion she was guilty made.
Excess of love begot excess of grief,
Grief fondly bad her hence to hope relief.
But angry Phoebus hears, unmov'd, her sighs,
And scornful from her loath'd embraces flies.
All day, all night, in trackless wilds, alone
She pin'd, and taught the list'ning rocks her moan.
On the bare earth she lies, her bosom bare,
Loose her attire, dishevel'd is her hair.
Nine times the morn unbarr'd the gates of light,
As oft were spread th' alternate shades of night,
So long no sustenance the mourner knew,
Unless she drunk her tears, or suck'd the dew.
She turn'd about, but rose not from the ground,
Turn'd to the Sun, still as he roul'd his round:
On his bright face hung her desiring eyes,
'Till fix'd to Earth, she strove in vain to rise.
Her looks their paleness in a flow'r retain'd,
But here, and there, some purple streaks they gain'd.
Still the lov'd object the fond leafs pursue,
Still move their root, the moving Sun to view,
And in the Heliotrope the nymph is true.

Excess of love begetting excess of grief: heliotrope, frankincense, muguet, osmanthus, and neroli.

I was born here to Greek parents and grew up with these stories, so the Great Duets in Tragedy series is especially meaningful to me since this mythology is s a part of my heritage. When it comes to florals, I tend to be extremely picky. There aren't many straight florals I like; I need my florals taken with spices, resins, musks or gourmands. Now take the florals in this, add frankincense and suddenly something magical happens. It turns into a golden, exotic blend with the frankincense shining at the fore and the flowers backing it up with a dreamy and sweet, but definitely not cloying, sweetness. This is not a dark and brooding frankincense (which I'm equally fond of) but one that I can imagine is the color of liquid gold. I can't pick out a single floral because everything is so well-blended, but they all merge into something exotically feminine. There is also something in here, something poignant but not bitter, possibly the neroli, that clearly evokes the grief of Clytie. It's a beautiful and very accurate evocation, and I'll treasure it along with all the rest of the scents in this series. Edited March 21, 2010 by Invidiana

[angelicruin]

Beautifully blended frankincense and herbal florals on my skin.

[skyelyric]

Um, ouch. I get a breath of sweet florals and then straight up chili powder...what on earth did my chemistry do to this???

[crebbsgirl]

Warm and golden. This starts off predominantly heliotrope and neroli on me. Then the muguet and the frankincense come out a little later. This turns into a warm resinous floral. I like it, but it's a little too floral for me.

[zankoku_zen]

On wet, I get a giant slap of frankincense mixed with heliotrope. As it dries, the frankincense recedes, and goes down to just being warm and the neroli comes out. It sort of reminds me to Sporting Sun, actually but the osmanthus casts this screeching floral top note to it all.

 

Pass.

[edenssixthday]

Clytie - This scent is the perfect example of why I have this crazy drive to try every BPAL I can: because if I only tried the ones I thought I'd like, I'd miss out on beautiful scents like this one. With the presence of nerolia nd muguet and even the heliotrope to a degree, I shouldn't like this at all. But it's so beautiful on me I could cry. I just can't get over it. It's a beautiful, warm, and sunny floral scent. It's sweet, smooth, and golden almost to the point of being honey-like, but without the honey. The frankincense is completely unidentifiable on me, which would usually bum me out, but not at all with this scent, because it's just perfect. It's not remotely as pretty when layered with Helios (which I love in its own right, too). On its own, it's one of the prettiest florals I've encountered.

 

 

[Little Bird]

I usually love heliotrope, frankincense, and neroli, but I can't pick out any of those notes in this blend. It has an overall sweet, soapy, watery floral smell, but nothing that really smells like heliotrope or neroli to me. It also has a really weird spiciness to it that I thought was black pepper, but after reading the reviews, it does kinda smell like chili powder to me as well. Very weird.

 

Soapy, watery, slightly sweet, perfumey florals and a touch of pepper/chili powder. And something about this keeps making me think of dried flowers and fake flowers in a craft store. It's too perfumey-chemical-floral for me. I had to wash this one off after a half hour, as it was starting to give me a headache...

[PurringPulsar]

Clytie

 

In the imp: neroli. Gorgeous and slightly bittersweet neroli, and lots of it.

Wet on skin: fresh dewy orange blossoms, a hint of lily and frankincense.

Dry on skin: this is gorgeous. This is neroli, gentle dewy flowers, and a warm base of frankincense. The neroli leads the way, it’s wonderful here, a proper orange blossom scent, a hint of bitterness, a hint of tea, it also smells a bit like the smell of crushed orange tree leaves. The muguet is actually really nice here-at least for now. It seems to be the kind of lily of the valley I can tolerate, like the one in Penitent Magdalene or Lilium Inter Spinas. I smell a tiny, tiny bit of heliotrope and osmanthus (which is like the osmanthus in Belle Vinu). The frankincense adds a little bit of spice and a nice resinous base for the flowers.

After a while: the neroli does lose its intensity, giving way to the other floral notes. After a moment when I fear it’ll turn soapy, it improves, and it’s time for osmanthus to shine. This combination of osmanthus and frankincense reminds me of another favourite of mine, Night’s Pavilion. The heliotrope sweetens it a little. Even the muguet is playing it cool. I don’t adore it as much as Helios but this is a lot nicer than I expected.

Verdict: this is the perfect complementing scent to Helios. Whereas in Helios, it’s frankincense dominated with a hint of neroli, in here it’s the reverse-orange blossom dominates, with a hint of frankincense. The scents are yin and yang. This scent has a few doom blooms in it but miraculously, it works on me! No soap or sharp piercing flowers of fail, but a pretty scent of fragile white petals with a little bit of golden spicy frankincense to ground the flowery notes. It’s very pretty, delicate and feminine and youthful, it’s like spring flowers covered in morning dew lit by the warm rays of Helios. Of course I’m more partial to the sun god’s scent but I’m surprised as to how good his companion is.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? yes! I may get a bottle set.

If you like this, try: Night’s Pavilion, Christine, Lilium Inter Spinas, Belle Vinu

[milo]

Wet, this is orangey soap. Dry, it turns into powdery orangey soap. It does get a bit musky after a bit, with the orange, but then fades to nothing within the hour, so this pretty stage is not really worth it to me.

[gchris]

First whiff is strong, probably the Frank. I love osmanthus but the frank is so over powering in this blend and since I dont like frank it is a dud for me. Reminds me of my grandmothers aged perfume. Enough said.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Mostly the neroli comes through

 

Wet on me – A slightly sweet, softly powdered, floral, with a hint of lily in the background

 

Dry on me – An almost fizzy yellow musk scent that sits very close to my skin

 

Overall – Faint and a little hard to get a grip on

[mymymai]

ITB: Frankincense and lily of the valley.

Wet: It smells like floral baby oil. The lily of the valley is coming through well, as well as the neroli. I get an ever-so-faint scent of beeswax for some reason.

Dry: Very light powdery floral - very close to skin. Nicely feminine and not too overpowering.

[ralenth]

Wet: Herbal, and slightly floral.

 

Drydown: Lily of the valley peeps in over the crushed herbs.

 

Dry: Clytie is green and lovely, but the frankincense takes a while to come to the fore. It certainly is one of the more interesting florals that I have encountered recently.

 

Throw: Very close to the skin.

[OctoberGwen]

Oh boy.

 

Golden frankincense with a perfect mix of florals; the neroli (which is a note I love) keeps it from being too sweet. I think it captures the essence of Clytie's story.

 

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful blend, and I will weep when my 1/4 imp is gone.

[DiZZysTARdust]

i picked up clytie as a second thoight, because there are others in the same release that i am DISO and after taking a look at the note list i figured why not? and snagged it from a second hand seller. wet in the bottle this is kind of vaguely sweetish, a little musty. i think its the frankincense im getting a first blast of cause its kinda metallic. so here goes. on this instantly sweetens for me. its like, really sweet. the throw from far away reminds me of candy sugar, but not a specific flavor nor really fruit. just candy, like maybe the wrapper of a skittles package thats been emptied- an amalgamation of all the flavors. BUT when i sniff my skin right against it, the frankincense is very prominent with the flowers lending it a musty, very well blended floral sweetness. it legit reminds me of some dried flowers burning on an altar. i cant pick out a specific flower. the throw remains flower candy sweet while its wafting around me. after an hour this stayed exactly the same. the throw became a little less strong but still peeked out here and there. this lasted a good few hours on me, maybe 3+

Edited September 8, 2018 by DiZZysTARdust