Mendesian

The Mendesian was made at Mendes in the Nile Delta and traded across the Mediterranean for a thousand years; myrrh, cassia, and resin carried in oil, the most expensive perfume of the ancient world.

The modern reading keeps the river rather than the recipe. Papyrus and violet leaf open it green and cold; vetiver, lotus, and iris hold the middle; dark musk, driftwood, and ambergris close it the way silt closes over stone. It smells of moving water, which is a difficult thing to make and the reason this one took three years.