Splish Splash, I Was Taking A Bath?

[Lisa]

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the cheeky heading, but I do have some questions if anyone is game.....

I remember from my studies long ago that most Greeks "bathed" by rubbing themselves with oil and then sort of scraping it off with sort of a dull knife, correct? But, Alexander is known to have bathed. In fact, there's almost as many references to him bathing as there are to him drinking. I know that soap is a relatively modern invention, so I know he wasn't using soap. I'm guessing that water would have been drawn from a not so polluted area of a local river (upstream?) and heated and then you just sort of jump in and rub the dirt off?

Here's another issue that has me a little perplexed. If you look at the references, most of them say something along the lines of Alexander attended a dinner party with his friends where he got rip roaring drunk, then he went back to his palace quarters or, more likely, his tent, had a bath, and went to sleep or was induced to rejoin the party. So, I'm wondering, why the bath before bed? If you were going to have dinner and drinks with your friends, wouldn't you bathe first, so you weren't funky and stinky for dinner and drinks? It almost makes me wonder if the bathing served some sort of ritualistic function that went along with the drinking, i.e., honoring Dyionysis?

One more thing. Do you think that Alexander's companions also bathed so often? Or, do you suppose that they did that thing with the oil and strigl (I think that's what it was called), i.e., the dull knife.

Wasn't there a Greek god called Hygenia? Does anyone suspect that all this bathing of Alexander's was an attempt to stay healthy?

[marcus]

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the cheeky heading, but I do have some questions if anyone is game.....

As a lifelong Bobby Darin fan, I was amused by your title.

I remember from my studies long ago that most Greeks "bathed" by rubbing themselves with oil and then sort of scraping it off with sort of a dull knife, correct? But, Alexander is known to have bathed. In fact, there's almost as many references to him bathing as there are to him drinking.

I am certainly no expert on Greek bathing habits. I always understood that it was the Romans who used the oil and strigil - I don't know about the Greeks.

Maybe this is a little known/explored example of Alexander's "medising" that warrants further attention?

ATB

[Lisa]

Well, I thought it was the Romans that made such a huge, social event of bathing.

[athenas owl]

The Greeks called the scraper thingy a stlengis. Tthere is a Roman copy of a Greek athlete by Lysippos called the Apoxyomenos, a nude male in the act of scraping with the stlengis (strigil in Latin). Somewhere I read that when the graves at Chaeronea were excavated, the Sacred Band had been buried with their stlengis'...don't quote me on that because I can't remember where. I suspect the Romans copied the practice from the Greeks.

As for bathing, didn't Philip disallow the use of hot water in baths, except for newly post-partum women? So a nice warm bath was something they would have looked forward to. Also, when one of the officer's was describing the heat of Susa, an example was that when the Persians wanted to take a bath, they would simply set the water outside to heat it. It was that and not the bath itself that was worth the mention. There are excavations fo Greek homes where the larger ones do have what is called a "bathing room". I haven't heard of any public bath like the Romans, though.

Taking a bath before bed, especially if you aren't feeling spiffy (drunk or maybe not feeling very well) doesn't seem that odd. I believe it was indeed in the palace that he took that bath, they were back in Babylon by then. I do think that Alexnader was more fastidious than most, but then as the histories are about Alexander, we don't hear about the bathing practices of the others.

[Lisa]

Before you reminded me of Phillip's strange edict prohibiting baths except for post natal women, I was thinking that perhaps it was a bit politically incorrect to go to a macho, testosterone fueled symposium smelling too nice. Sort of like shaving off one's beard was a bit politically incorrect. Perhaps if you showed up a bit smelly and sweaty, it showed you'd been working hard all day as a Macedonian male should? However, after who knows how much to drink, perhaps ATG, his inhibitions having been lowered, indulged in the ancient equivalent of a bowl of chocolate ice cream, i.e., a nice hot bath If that really was his habit, he's lucky he never drowned in the bath.

Best,
Lisa