Egyptian Breath Mints – Kyphi (κυ̑φι), Kupar, Kapet

Kyphi (κυ̑φι), as it was called in Greek, Kupar, in Syriac, or Kapet, in Egyptian, was an ancient Egyptian incense concoction that was also made into a sucking candy and used to freshen breath. There are a few Kyphi recipes that have been preserved in various papyrii and books. The Papyrus Ebers recipe is the oldest extant detailed recipe of Kyphi, dated in the colophon of the papyrus to the 9th year of Amenhotep I, right after the Hyksos period, approximately in 1500 BCE. By the time the recipe reached the Greek period the ingredients have changed, and most of the tree resins were replaced by much sweeter ingredients, such as raisins. This recipe is based on Papyrus Ebers which is what the Egyptians would have eaten in 2nd millennium BCE.

There are 3 ways that the word Kapet is spelled in Egyptian Hieroglyphics in different inscriptions:

𓐗𓂂𓊪𓏲𓏥

𓎡𓄿𓊶𓏏𓊪

𓐓𓊪𓏲𓈛

Papyrus Ebers is an Egyptian papyrus, which has writing on its front and back, kept in the library of the University of Leipzig, in Germany (Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig).

Papyrus Ebers written in Hieratic Script, Columns 98-99 with the Kyphi Recipe.

Papyrus Ebers, Hieroglyph Transliteration of Column 099 with the second part of the Kyphi Recipe.		Papyrus Ebers, Hieroglyph Transliteration of Column 098 with the first part of the Kyphi Recipe.

There are a few different translations of the Papyrus Ebers, and all of them vastly differ on how to translate the names of the ingredients in the recipes. I have quoted here two translations that most popular and have selected from them, based on what made most sense.

English Translation by Bendix Ebbell:

Papyrus Ebers 853 (98, 14b – 18b)

Incense, what is done to sweeten the smell of the house or the clothes: dry myrrh, pignon, frankincense, rush-nut, wood (i.e. bark) of cinnamon, śbt, reed from Phoenicia (calamus aromaticus), nkwwn, ḏmtn, liquid styrax, are ground fine, mixed together and (a little) thereof is placed over a fire.

Papyrus Ebers 854 (99, 1)

“Another (use) made by women therewith: to put this remedy, (made) according to this direction, into honey, is boiled, mixed and shaped into balls; they shall fumigate with them. But they use a taste of them to sweeten the smell of their mouth.”

English Translation from Ebbell, Bendix, and Leon Banov. The Papyrus Ebers: the greatest Egyptian medical document. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1937.

German Translation by Marco Stuhr:

Papyrus Ebers 852 (98, 12 – 98, 14b)

{98, 12} Ein Räuchermittel, das gemacht wird, um zu verbessern den Geruch des Hauses oder der Kleidung: {98, 13a} trockenes Myrrhenharz, {98, 14a} prt-Snj-Frucht, {98, 15a} Weihrauch, {98, 16a} Zyperngras, {98, 17a} Holz vom tj-Sps-Baum, {98, 18a} Melone, {98, 19a} Schilfrohr aus Palästina, {98, 20a} ynktn-Mineral, {98, 21a} Dmtn-Mineral, {98, 13b} weicher Teil der Pappel, fein zerreiben, machen zu {98, 14b} einer einheitlichen Masse, geben davon ins Feuer.

Papyrus Ebers 853 (98, 14b – 18b)

Ein anderes [Mittel], welches machen die Frauen dafür: {98, 15b} Geben dieses (=vorherige) Heilmittel in dieser Weise auf Honig, {98, 16b} kochen, mischen und machen zu Kügelchen. Dann sollen sie sich beräuchern {98, 17b} damit. Mögen sie auch machen auch Mundpillen daraus, {98, 18b} um zu verbessern den Geruch ihres Mundes.

kkt – ein Ungeziefer (Rüsselkäfer?)
smt – ein nicht näher bezeichnetes Tier
prt-Snj – eine nicht näher bezeichnete Nuß
tj-Sps – Kampferbaum (Cinnamonum camphora)?
ynktn – ein nicht näher bezeichneter Arzneistoff mit fremdländischem Namen
Dmtn – ein nicht näher bezeichneter Arzneistoff mit fremdländischem Namen

German Translation from Marco Stuhr’s website: http://www.medizinische-papyri.de/PapyrusEbers/html/index.html

My English Translation of the German Translation by Marco Stuhr:

Papyrus Ebers 852 (98, 12 – 98, 14b)

{98, 12}} A smoking incense made to improve the smell of the house or clothing: {98, 13a} dry myrrhine resin, {98, 14a} prt-snj fruit, {98, 15a} incense, {98, 16a} Cyprus grass, {98, 17a} Wood from the tj-Sps tree, {98, 18a} Melon, {98, 19a} Reed from Palestine, {98, 20a} ynktn mineral, {98, 21a} Dmtn -Mineral, {98, 13b} soft part of the poplar, finely pulverize, make {98, 14b} a uniform mass, give it into the fire.

Papyrus Ebers 853 (98, 14b – 18b)

Another [means] which women make for it: {98, 15b} Give this (= previous) remedy in this way to cook on honey, {98, 16b}, mix and make into globules. Then they shall be consumed with it {98, 17b}. May they also make mouth-pills out of it, {98, 18b} to improve the smell of their mouth.

Kkt – a vermin (needling beetle?)
Smt – an unspecified animal
Prt-Snj – an unspecified nut
Tj-Sps – Camphor tree (Cinnamonum camphora)?
Ynktn – an unspecified medicinal product with a foreign name
Dmtn – an unspecified medicinal product with a foreign name

Based on different translations there are actually a few options for 9 out of the 11 mentioned ingredients.

Ingredients Options:

1. Dry Myrrh Resin
2. Ingredient 2 Options:
   1. Part-Snj Fruit (Unspecified Nut)
   2. Pignon – Pinus Pinea (Pine Nuts)
3. Ingredient 3 Options:
   1. Frankinsense
   2. Incense
4. Ingredient 4 Options:
   1. Rush Nut (Nut Grass), same as Cyperus Grass
   2. Cyperus Grass, Cyperus rotundus native to Egypt and southern Europe
   3. Sweet Flag, Acorus calamus native to Eastern Europe and Asia. This ingredient can cause hallucinations, diarrhea and other adverse effects.
5. Ingredient 5 Options:
   1. Wood (i.e. bark) of cinnamon. Most probably Cinnamomum verum (true cinnamon) from India, which was imported into Egypt.
   2. Wood from the tj-Sps tree – Camphor Tree (Cinnamonum camphora). Camphor oil made from Camphor Tree is poisonous and should not be taken internally. It can be used only topically. Can cause death.
6. Ingredient 6 Options:
   1. Sbt (untranslated)
   2. Melon
   3. Mastic
7. Ingredient 7 Options:
   1. Reed from Phoenicia (Calamus aromaticus). It is a Lemon Grass of species Cymbopogon jwarancusa which grows in the Middle East.
   2. Reed from Palestine. Camel grass of species Cymbopogon schoenanthus which grows in the Arabian peninsula or north of Sahara dessert.
8. Ingredient 8 Options:
   1. Nkwwn (untranslated)
   2. ynktn-Mineral (untranslated)
   3. Inektun herb
   4. Hyacinthus Orientalis (my translation). This grass is toxic and can cause hallucinations, brain damage and death, when taken in large quantities.
9. Ingredient 9 Options:
   1. Dmtn
   2. Dmtn Mineral (untranslated)
   3. Mastic
10. Ingredient 10 Options:
    1. Liquid styrax
    2. Soft part of the poplar
    3. Storax Balsam (Latin: storax; Greek: στύραξ). The storax of the ancients was probably extracted from the Liquidambar orientalis which grows wild in northern Syria and may even have been grown in Israel. From it is extracted an aromatic sap with healing qualities called storax liquidis.
11. Honey used as base.

Out of the 11 ingredients listed in the Papyrus Ebers, I was able to use 9. Two ingredients remain untranslated and therefore unknown. Some ingredients are debated, and 3 of the options were poisonous hallucinogenics, which the Egyptians would have been happy to use, but I made sure that all ingredients that I used would not cause medical problems.

The final 9 ingredients that I used in this recipe were:

1. Honey
2. Dry Myrrh Resin
3. Pine Nuts
4. Dry Frankincense Resin
5. Cyperus Grass (Musta Root – Cyperus Rotundus)
6. Ceylon True Cinnamon Sticks – Cinnamonum Verum
7. Chios Mastic Gum
8. Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon – not sure of exact variety that I used, since that was all available in Whole Foods)
9. Turkish Storax Balsam (Styrax Officianale)

Papyrus Ebers does not tell us the quantities of each ingredient. In order to figure those out, I had to use a 2^nd century CE Syriac work, called The Book of Medicines, which provided weight of similar ingredients in a different kyphi recipe in Greek Drachms. The weights in grams were from the Syriac recipe as translated in Lise Maniche’s book, Sacred luxuries: fragrance, aromatherapy, and cosmetics in Ancient Egypt, p. 50., and compared to Budge’s translation of The Book of Medicines. Ratios in drachms preserved: 1 drachm = 4 grams.

[A medicine] made of myrrh, and it is called “Kupar”. It is good for hardness of the liver, and for pleurisy, and for coughs.

Gum of terebinth – 4 drachms
Myrrh – 4 drachms
Spikenard – 1 drachm
Crocus – 1 drachm
Cinnamon – 1 drachm
Cassia – 2 drachms
Aspalitos (harts-tongue fern?) – 2 drachms
Flowers of pistacia lentiscus – 2 drachms
Flesh of dried grapes, cleaned inside and out – 45 drachms
Honey as much as sufficeth.

Dose, one drachm. Dissolve the medicines which can be dissolved and the dried grapes in strong-smelling wine, pound the dry ones and clean them, melt the gum of terebinth with the honey, mix them all together, work up well and pour into a vessel, and administer in some drink that is suitable for the particular disease. It may also be burnt like incense before the table, and its smell is very pleasant.

Syriac text and English translation from Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, ed. Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics: Or,” The Book of Medicines.”. Oxford University Press, 1913. Volume I: p. 356, folio 171a, Volume II: pp. 406-407.

Final List of Ingredients:

Ingredient Number 8, Inektun, although not used due to its hallucinogenic effects, was identified by me. This ingredient remains untranslated in all official translations. According to Marko Stuhr’s German translation of Papyrus Ebers he says that Inektun is a foreign name, and not Egyptian.

I would like to propose that Inektun is really a Hebrew word – Yekinton (יקינתון), and is of Canaanite origin. It is a name of a common Mediterranean plant Hyacinthus Orientalis, more commonly known as Hyacinth, or ὑάκινθος in Greek. It seems the Hebrew etymology comes from Greek, and so it would be the Hyksos, the Sea People, many of whom were of Greek origin from Canaan, who brought the name for this plant with them and incorporated it in a transliterated Semitic form into Egyptian. It is interesting if a Semitic word was used for this name during the Hyksos period, right after which the Papyrus Ebers was written.

Hyacinth emits a very sweet smell, and is toxic due to containing alkaloids, which would give people hallucinations if taken in large quantities. This would make a ton of sense to be used in Kyphi, since that was a sweet incense or a sweet chewing remedy to get rid of bad breath, as Papyrus Ebers says, and it would make people feel good at the same time.

Wild Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) in Cambridge University Botanic Garden. Photo Magnus Manske, May 2, 2009. Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

1. Manniche, Lise. Sacred luxuries: fragrance, aromatherapy, and cosmetics in Ancient Egypt. Cornell University Press, 1999. pp. 47-55.
2. Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, ed. Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics: Or,” The Book of Medicines.”. Volume I. Oxford University Press, 1913. p. 356, folio 171a.
3. Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, ed. Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics: Or,” The Book of Medicines.”. Volume II. Oxford University Press, 1913. pp. 406-407.
4. Ebbell, Bendix, and Leon Banov. The Papyrus Ebers: the greatest Egyptian medical document. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1937.
5. Papyrus Ebers in Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig: Color Images and English and German Translations by Bendix Ebbell
6. Papyrus Ebers: Black and White Images, German Translation by Marko Stuhr and Hieroglyphic Transliteration

Print Recipe

Egyptian Breathmints - Kyphi, Kapet

Kyphi, as it was called in Greek, or Kapet, in Egyptian, was an ancient Egyptian incense concoction that was also made into a sucking candy and used to freshen breath. This recipe is based on Papyrus Ebers from the 9th year of Amenhotep I, which is how the Egyptians would have eaten it in 2nd millennium BCE.

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Yum

Course

Dessert

Cuisine

Egyptian

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings

candies

Units

MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients

• 15 g Myrrh Resin Dry
• 15 g Pine Nuts
• 15 g Frankincense Resin Dry
• 4 g Musta Root (Cyperus Rotundus) Ground or Sticks
• 4 g Cinnamon (Cinnamonum camphora or Cinnamonum verum) Ground or Sticks
• 8 g Mastic Gum (Chios Mastiha)
• 8 g Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon jwarancusa or Cymbopogon schoenanthus) Fresh
• 4 g Turkish Storax (Styrax Officianale) Sticks
• 168 g Honey Liquid

Yum Course Dessert Cuisine Egyptian Prep Time 1 hour Cook Time 10 minutes Passive Time 30 minutes Servings candies Units MetricUS Imperial Ingredients 15 g Myrrh Resin Dry 15 g Pine Nuts 15 g Frankincense Resin Dry 4 g Musta Root (Cyperus Rotundus) Ground or Sticks 4 g Cinnamon (Cinnamonum camphora or Cinnamonum verum) Ground or Sticks 8 g Mastic Gum (Chios Mastiha) 8 g Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon jwarancusa or Cymbopogon schoenanthus) Fresh 4 g Turkish Storax (Styrax Officianale) Sticks 168 g Honey Liquid

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Instructions

1. Grind all of the ingredients, except for honey using either mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. It is better to grind each ingredient individually and only then mix them together.

   
2. Add all of the ground ingredients and honey to a sauce pan.

   
3. Bring the mixture to a boil. Continue boiling for 10 minutes while constantly mixing the mixture with a wooden spoon. The mixture will reduce and become thicker.

   
4. Filter the reduced mixture through a strainer while it is still hot. It will take about 10 minutes for the infused honey to drip down through the strainer.

   
5. The strained liquid will look like a thick black mass. It should not have any large particles in it. If necessary strain it twice. By now the liquid should have cooled off enough to be touched with hands.

   
6. Pour the strained liquid onto a plate and start rolling the liquid into small bite size balls with your hands.

   
7. Lay out the balls on a glass plate and let them solidify. To speed up the process they may be placed into the refrigerator.

   
8. Serve.

   

Recipe Notes

All of the rare ingredients in this recipe can be ordered on Amazon from various sellers. Ingredients were shipped from a variety of countries - Egypt, France, Greece, and USA.

The final product turned out to be nice, as you can see on the photos. However, the taste is definitely an acquired taste. It has a very strong taste of a mixture of tree resins, which makes it bitter, kind of like a mixture of very strong Turkish coffee and a burning sensation felt after smoking a Cuban cigar. The tree resins overpower the lemon grass and honey, although you can still taste the honey. It does improve the breath (I tried it on a few family members, all of whom said that I smell like burned tree sap :-)) and the taste remains in your mouth for hours. I could not get rid of it even after eating a bunch of bread and drinking grapefruit juice.

The texture is of a sticky soft candy, which is nice.

I can see this being quite a popular candy today, if all of the tree resins are replaced with oranges, lemons or berries.