Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

BALNEAE. BALNEAE. 185'
a round or oval basin (Xovr-'p or Xovr-pLov), rest- several strigils are figured below. The Greeks
ing on a stand (Trdoe-rareo,), by the side of which also used different materials for cleansing or washthose who are bathing are represented standing ing themselves in the bath, to which the general
undressed and washing themselves, as is seen in name of p~v5ya was given. and which were supthe following woodcut taken from Sir W. Hamil- plied by the aXeavevs. (Aristoph. Lysistr. 377.)
ton's vases. (Tischbein, i. pl. 58.) The word This hpuAa usually consisted of a lye made of lime
AHMO:IA upon it shows that it belonged to a or wood-ashes (Kovia), of nitrum, and of fuller's
public bath. earth (?y~ cileomia, Aristoph. Ran. 710 and Schol.;
Plat. Rep. iv. p. 430).
The bath was generally taken shortly before the
__ l_____ eZ 6rvovs or principal meal of the day. It was the
aU1 J ~practice to take first a warm or vapour, and afterwards a cold bath (Plut. de primo frig. 10; Paus.,
ii. 34. ~ 2), though in the time of Homer the cold
bath appears to have been taken first and the warm'2 Ad l afterwards. The cold water was usually pouredon the back or shoulders of the bathers by the
1iA >,2< > Bhaxavuss or his assistants, who are called irapaxvt/> > t3 h \ \ at. (Plat. Rep. i. p. 344; Lucian, Dezostlc. EnA( N~ - /X A=~ I v\\ 7cons. 16. vol. iii. p. 503; Plut. de Invid. 6, Apopktht..
Lac. 49.) The vessel, from which the water was
poured, was called &p-'Tarua. (Aristoph. Equit.
1087; Theophr. C/tar. 9.) In the first of the pre_/, ___ __.___ ceding woodcuts a 7rapaXtrsirts is represented with'
an \apuralva in his hands.
Among the Greeks a person was always bathed
at birth, marriage, and after death [FurNus];
The next woodcut is also taken from the same whence it is said of the Dardanians, an llywork (i. pl. 59), and represents two women bath- an people, that they bathe only thrice in their
ing. aThe one on the right hand is entirely naked, lives, at birth, marriage, and after death. (Nicol.:
and holds a looking- glass in her right hand; the one. ciStob. v. 51. p. 152, Gaisf.) The
on the left wears only a short kind of. Eros water in which the bride was bathed (Nou-rpbv
is represented hovering over the bathing vessel. eIndf, Aristoph. Lysista r 378) at Athens, was
taken firom the fountain of KallirrhoP, which was
called from the time of Peisistratus'Evveahpovvos.:
(Thucyd. ii. 15.) Compare Pollux, iii. 43; Har~_'_~ — / fpocrat. s. v. AovTpoep6por, who says that the water,
was fetched by a boy, who was the nearest relation, and that this boy was called XovTpo(p6pos.
- Im>1 SmH-Ie also states that water was fetched in the same
-\4zL;; Away to bathe the bodies of those who had died unmarried, and that on the monuments of such, a boy
was represented holding a water-vessel (S6pia).
{', )i-Ylt. \ SwAPollux (I. c.), however, states that it was a female
who fetched the water on such occasions, and De- i;\lX G) —- ( mosthenes (c. Leochar. p. 1089. 23; compare p.
1086. 14. &c.) speaks of I Xeourpoqepos on the
monument of a person who had died unmarried.
In remains of ancient art we find girls represented
as hovTeoqupdpoe, but never boys. (Brainsted, Brief'( —- a X I I AL Description of t/lirty-two ancient Greek Vases, pl..
27. The best account of the Greek baths is given
by Becker, Cltarikles, vol. ii. pp. 135-146, pp.
Besides the Xouevipes and XovTrpta there were 459-462.)
also the vessels for bathing, large enough for per- Roman Batis.- The Romans, in the earlier
sons to sit in, which, as stated above, are called periods of their history, used the bath but seldom,
&aduwz70ot by Homer and 7rsAeot by the later and only for health and cleanliness, not as a
Greeks (Schol. ad Aristoph. Equit. 1055; Hesych. luxury. Thus we learn from Seneca (Ep. 86)
s. v. vIaxos; Pollux, vii. 166, 168). In the that the ancient Romans washed their legs and
baths there was also a kind of sudorific or vapour arms daily, and bathed their whole body once a.
bath called 7ruvpia or 7rvpa'rsTpio, which is men- week. (Comp. Cat. de Lib. Eduzc. ap. Non. iii.
tioned as early as the time of Herodotus (iv. 75). s. v. EJphsppiuma; Colum. R. R. i. 6. ~ 20.)
(Compare Pollux, vii. 1 68; Athen. v. p. 207, f., It is not recorded at what precise period the use
xii. p. 519, e.; Plut. Ciez. 1.) of the warm bath was first introduced amongst the
The persons who bathed probably brought with Romans; but we learn from Seneca (I. c.) that
them strigils, oil, and towels. The strigil, which Scipio had a warm bath in his villa at Litemum;
was called by the Greeks rTXFe7L'S or v'rvrpa, which, however, was of the simplest kind, consistwas usually made of iron, but sometimes also of ing of a single chamber, just sufficient for the
other materials. (Plut. Inst. Lac. 32; Aelian, necessary purposes, and without any pretensions
xii. 29.) One of the figures in the preceding to luxury. It was " small and dark," he says:
woodcut is represented with a strigil in his hand; "after the manner of the ancients."' Seneca also