Ithaka

Olfactive Pyramid

Head Notes: Bergamot

Heart Notes: Aqueous Magnolia, Incense

Base Notes: Patchouli, Labdanum, Incense Resinoid, Virginian Cedar, Cypriol, Benzoin

Thanks to Alberto, for the maps he made visible to me

Ithaka (The Poem)

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon, don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you’re old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn’t have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you’ll have understood by then what these Ithaka mean.

P. Cavafy, fromC.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems.Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Translation Copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reproduced with permission of Princeton University Press.

Source: C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1975)

Versi the Packaging

Each flacon in the Versi trilogy will have a hand-crafted wooden cap and a hand-incised tablet with a symbol unique for each fragrance. For Ithaka it is a small boat in the sea.

The flacon is housed as usual in the classical Odori d’Anima wooden box, inspired by emblematic transportation cases used for the protective shipping of art works.

ITHAKA is the first creation of Versi Studio, which is an envisioned olfactive trilogy from Mendittorosa exploring the relationship between poetry and perfumery.

The first in this trilogy is ITHAKA, inspired by the poem Ithaka written by emblematic Greek Poet C. P. Cavafy, first published in 1911.

Perfumer: Camille Chemardin

Concept & Creative Design: Stefania Squeglia

Eau de Parfum 20% – 100ml / 3.4 fl OZ – Natural Spray