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ANCIENT GREEK HYGIENE
bronze razor
The oldest known confirmed bath tub come from Minoa. Shaped somewhat like a modern tub, it was found in the palace of King Minos in Knossos and was dated to around 1700 B.C. The Greeks did not have the luxurious bathes that the Romans had. Their public baths had showers and hot air rooms attached to the gymnasium.
The Greeks prized cleanliness and may have bathed regularly but they did not use soap. They anointed their bodies with oil and ashes; scrubbed themselves clean with blocks of pumice or sands, and then scrapped themselves with a curved metal instrument called a “ strigil”. After they did all that they immersed themselves in water and were anointed with olive oil.
In “ The Romantic Story of Scent” , John Trueman wrote, "The men of the ancient world were clean and scented. European men of the Dark Ages were dirty and unscented. Those of medieval times, and modern times up to about the end of the 17th century, were dirty and scented...Nineteenth-century men were clean and unscented."
Konstantine Panegyres wrote: The Greeks introduced various measures to prevent or reduce environmental harm. In 420BC, for example, the Athenians introduced a law to protect the river Ilissus: It is forbidden to soak the coats [of animals] in the Ilissus above the sanctuary of Heracles and to tan them. It is forbidden to throw the residue of the laundering into the river. Modern researchers think this measure might have helped the Ilissus stay clean. That's because authors writing in the fourth century B.C. (after the law was introduced) describe the Ilissus as a pure and beautiful river. Other measures to reduce pollution included banning public defecation and urination. Bans on washing clothes or throwing rubbish into rivers were also common. But it's unlikely the public adhered to these restrictions all the time.[Source Konstantine Panegyres, University of Melbourne, The Conversation, October 21, 2024]
Toiletry Articles and Mirrors in Ancient Greece
It was customary among the Greeks and Romans to rub the body with oil after the bath. The small jar called aryballos and the taller alabastron were used for holding oil and perfumes for toilet use. Some small glass toilet bottles are so charming in shape and coloring as to make a modern woman envious. There are two crystal scent bottles from Cyprus, one of which has a gold stopper. The toilet box or pyxis held ointment, rouge, face or tooth powders, or small toilet articles or ornaments. These charming boxes were made of metal, as a silver box in or of painted terracotta. The latter are often triumphs of the potter’s and vase painter’s art; for example, a white pyxis and a red-figured pyxis, with its interesting drawings of women working wool. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]
stirgils Tweezers were used for removing superfluous hair. Bronze spatulae were useful in a variety of ways for mixing and applying the cosmetics which were employed so constantly by Greek and Roman ladies. An instrument corresponding to our medicine droppers are the dipping-rods of bronze or glass. They could be inserted into bottles or jars to take out a small quantity of liquid. A disk about half way up the rod kept it from slipping into the bottle.
Ancient mirrors were usually disks made of highly polished metal, usually bronze. Sometimes they consisted of a simple disk, plain or ornamented on one side with an engraving or a design in relief, or again it is made in one piece with a long handle or with a short tang to be inserted into a bone or ivory handle, or it is provided with a ring. The disk is often protected with a cover which bears the principal decoration.
Greek mirrors are of two types: either a simple disk without a handle, fitting into a cover, usually ornamented with a relief, or a disk supported on a stand, often in the form of a human Two stands from which the mirrors have been lost, and a mirror with a cover decorated with a woman’s head in relief. Such mirrors were inferior to the modern in power to reflect as they are superior in beauty. The process of making a mirror by backing a sheet of glass is not older than the fourteenth century.
Stirgils
An article used daily in ancient times, with really a modern equivalent, is the strigil or flesh-scraper. The strigil was a rather strange-looking device usually made of bronze. It was used mostly by athletes to scrape dirt and oils off their bodies after competitions and training. The athletes did this rather than wash with soap. The strigil looked sort of like a long spoon with the spoon part stretched and elongated and bent forward and the handle stretched and bent backwards. Strigils first appeared in Greek art in the 6th century B.C.
The stirgil was used especially by athletes after exercise, to remove the dust and sand of the wrestling-ground, so that the strigil, oil-flask, and sponge became in Greece a kind of symbol for the athlete’s life, which was, practically speaking, the life of all well-to-do young men.
Boiotian Greek painted terracotta figure dating to around 500 BC showing a barber cutting a man's hair
Some athletes where found to have them buried with stirgils in ancient graves. On a gravestone a dead youth is represented with a strigil in his hand, while his little slave holds his towel and oil-flask. Both men and women used strigils in the bath for scraping off the fuller’s earth or lye powder used as soap. A silver strigil was included in the tomb furniture of an Etruscan lady. [Source: “The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans”, Helen McClees Ph.D, Gilliss Press, 1924]
Razors and Barbers in Ancient Greece
Ancient bronze razors were semi-circular in shape and differed from our modern ones. One of the oldest ones is a crescent-shaped blade, made in Italy in the early Iron Age. The pretty terra-cotta group from Tanagra, a site north of Athens, transports us to a barber’s shop; a worthy citizen, apparently covered by a long dressing-mantle, is seated on a low stool, while a short man standing behind him — perhaps a slave — is carefully cutting his hair with a pair of scissors. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]
Barbers undertook the care of both hair and beard, and cut and cleaned the nails. These barbers’ shops were also meeting-places for the citizens — not only for idlers, but, generally speaking, for all who desired to hear the news. This custom still prevails in many parts of Italy, especially in the south, where the Salone is a general meeting-place.
Even in ancient times barbers had a reputation for being talkative. Every day many people entered their shops, and among them strangers who brought news and expected to receive some in exchange. It is well known that the news of the defeat of the Athenian expedition to Sicily was first made known in a barber’s shop in the Peiraeus by a stranger who had just landed.
Toilets in Ancient Greece
The Greeks were able to develop an advanced plumbing system that was used to supply water to their homes and public buildings, such as baths. One of the most famous examples of ancient Greek plumbing is the aqueduct that was built in the 6th century B.C. to supply the city of Athens with water. In addition to the aqueduct, the Greeks also developed a system of clay pipes to transport water to individual homes and buildings. [Source Plumb Smart Plumbing and Drains]
According to Plumb Smart: The Greeks also developed a primitive form of a flushing toilet called a "krepis." The krepis was a stone slab with a hole in the center that was connected to a sewer system. The waste would be flushed away with water from a jug or bucket. While this was a significant improvement over the use of chamber pots, it was not as advanced as the Roman flushing toilet.
ancient toilet at Dion
Another important development in ancient Greek plumbing was the use of lead pipes. These pipes were used to transport water to individual homes and buildings, and they were much more durable than the clay pipes used in earlier systems. However, the Greeks were not aware of the dangers of lead poisoning. Despite these innovations, ancient Greek plumbing was not as advanced as that of the Romans. The Greeks did not develop a public sewage system, and waste was often disposed of in open pits or thrown into the streets. This led to unsanitary conditions and the spread of disease, which was a major problem in ancient Greek cities.
The world's oldest toilet is generally thought to be a seat-like structure excavated in Iraq's Tell Asmar. According to Cambridge archeologist Augusta McMahon, the first simple toilets were Mesopotamian pits, about 1 meter in diameter, over which users would squat. The pits were lined with hollow ceramic cylinders that prevented excrement from escaping. Approximately 1000 years later the Minoans invented the flush. The first flushing toilet, excavated at the palace of Knossos in Crete, washed waste from the toilet to the sewer. By the Hellenistic period large-scale public latrines brought toilets to the effluent masses. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, November 20, 2016]
Bathing in Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, considerable attention was devoted to the care of the body. Washing and bathing were, of course, very common. Scenes from the bath are often represented on monuments; especially we often find in sculpture or painting representations of Aphrodite, or some beautiful mortal, stooping down while a maid pours water over her back from a jar. In the vase picture next to which a scene from the toilet is depicted, one woman is pouring water into a basin, while another has disrobed, and is arranging her hair before a mirror. We must suppose the locality of these scenes to have been a special bathroom, which was always found in the better class of houses on the lower storey. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]
The usual morning wash was performed in large basins standing on high feet, or sometimes at the well itself, which was situated in the courtyard of a house; women of the lower classes probably washed at one of the public wells. On a picture representing the Judgment of Paris, of which some figures are represented, a vase painter naïvely represents Athene thus performing her toilet before presenting herself to the judge; she is holding both hands under the water flowing from the fountain, evidently intending to wash her face; she has carefully drawn her dress between her knees in order to keep the water from it.
The custom of taking a warm bath daily had at first found much opposition in Greece. In Homer we find warm baths only mentioned as a refreshment after long journeys or other fatigues, or else used for purposes of cleanliness; later on, cold baths, especially in the sea or in streams, were recommended as good for the health and strengthening for the nerves, while warm baths were looked upon as enervating; still the custom became very common of taking a bath before dinner, either at home or in one of the public baths.
Public Baths in Ancient Greece
Bathtub of Nestor
As for public baths for men, one image represents a public bath for men, taken from a vase picture. In the middle is the bath room, where the water is pouring out of two animals’ heads. On the right and left are youths who have already taken their bath, and are about to anoint themselves with oil. We know very little about these public baths from writers or from remains of the buildings. They were certainly not nearly so large or so luxurious as the Thermae of the Roman Empire; but even in the Greek baths there were separate apartments for warm, cold, and vapour baths, with large reservoirs or smaller basins, in which water was poured out over the body, also rooms for undressing, anointing, etc. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]
The more the custom grew of remaining for hours in these places or connecting them with the gymnasia, the more extensive they became and the more luxurious. We cannot accurately ascertain to what extent the State sometimes owned these public baths and attended to their maintenance, but admission was not free even to these; a small fee was paid to the bath attendant, who superintended the place, and rendered assistance in the bath, not perhaps to cover the expenses of maintenance, so much as for his own trouble and labour.
The owners of private establishments were obliged to charge higher fees if they wanted not only to cover their expenses, but also to gain a profit; mention is made of a private bathing establishment which was sold for 3,000 drachmae, and must, therefore, have brought in corresponding interest to the purchaser, which could only be obtained by the entrance fees of the bathers. The owner and attendants were responsible for the care of the bath, but not for the clothes of the bathers, which were often stolen.
Those who had plenty of slaves used, therefore, to bring one with them to carry the utensils required for the bath, such as towels, oil flasks, and strigils, and to watch over his master’s clothes while he was bathing. As the custom of taking a warm bath daily became more general, the scene in the bath houses an hour before dinner grew more and more animated. Talking and joking went on; cheerfully-disposed people even sang, though that was regarded as unseemly; in the rooms devoted to refreshment after the bath they played knuckle-bones, or dice, or ball, sometimes even cottabus, for which game wine was necessary, and hence we must infer that opportunity for wine drinking was also given there in later times.
There were also large public baths for women, but ancient authorities tell us very little about their construction and use; still, notices here and there in writing, or on monuments, enable us with certainty to assert their existence. A vase painting, gives a wonderfully vivid picture of one of these public baths for women. It is a hall, supported by Doric columns, covered to the height of about a foot with water, which is always flowing fresh from the heads of animals below the capitals of the pillars; probably the water was led through the pipes passing from column to column, on which the women have hung their clothes. The women, with their hair plaited in single braids to prevent it getting wet, are standing under the douches and letting the water pour over their head, back, arms, and legs, while they rub themselves with their hands. We cannot tell whether women of the better classes also went to these public baths; in any case, the middle classes, who probably had no bathrooms of their own, formed the greater part of the attendance.
Anointing and Rubbing with Oils in Ancient Greece
Bathing was accompanied by anointing and rubbing with oils or other fragrant essences; this, too, we often find represented on monuments, where a lady herself makes use of a little oil-flask, or an attendant rubs her body with it. In fact, rich women always had a slave who acted as lady’s-maid to help them at their toilet, and on the many toilet scenes depicted on the Greek vases we seldom see women dressing without assistance. Thus two women are helping a third to dress; the mistress stands in the middle, and is about to fasten her girdle, and, in order not to be hindered by the falling folds of her chiton, she is holding the tip in her mouth; in front of her stands an attendant holding a mirror; another woman standing behind her, apparently rather a friend than a slave, holds a jewel casket in the left hand, and with the right hands a pearl necklace taken from it to the lady. On Attic Stelai we very commonly find a lady represented with her lady’s-maid and jewel casket. The use of the mirror is also a favorite subject in works of art, especially connected with the arrangement of the hair and veil Thus, one image we find that even Hera, before showing herself to Paris, finds it necessary, with the help of her hand-mirror, to make some slight alteration in her veil. A similar scene is depicted by the pretty terra-cotta from Tanagra.
One image represents a lady fully dressed, perhaps a bride, attended by two lady’s-maids, one of whom holds an open jewel casket before her, in order that she may choose something more out of it, in spite of the fact that she is so carefully veiled that all ornament seems superfluous. Besides these toilet scenes, a vase picture giving other scenes from the life of women, which, however, have not yet been clearly interpreted. The woman represented here is seated on a chair, her right leg is uncovered, and the foot is placed on a curious rest; in her hand she holds a bandage, as though she intended to fasten it round her foot. Another woman stands and looks on; a spinning-basket and a stool are also included in the picture. It is impossible to say whether this should also be regarded as a toilet scene.
Massages in Ancient Greece and Rome
The ancient Greeks thought massages could melt fat. Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: Father of medicine, Hippocrates, insisted that a good physician be skilled in the art of “rubbing,” or massage. Rubbing, he says, can bind or loosen the joints and flesh. Rubbing hard will bind the body; massaging softly will loosen it; excessive rubbing with cause the flesh to waste away; while a moderate amount would promote its growth. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, 2017]
But massage can have even more profound effects on the body. In dispensing pediatric advice, the ancient gynecologist Soranus (fl. 1st-2nd century CE) suggested that nurses should massage the male infant into an appropriate bodily shape. The buttocks, head, limbs, nose, and other parts of the baby’s body could be manipulated so that it reflected a more masculine “nature.” There’s something ironic and oddly revealing about the idea that you can push your body into a better version of its “natural” (ideal) state, but there’s also something very particular about the soft pliable bodies of babies. Just the experience of being born can distort the shape of the cranium.
But it wasn’t only the bodies of infants that were susceptible to change. The 11th-century Persian medic Avicenna (Ibn Sina)’s encyclopedic The Canon of Medicine contains several dozen references to the use of medical massage. Drawing on the work of the Roman doctor Galen, Avicenna recommends a kind of kneading technique and rubbing that is usually referred to as friction. Friction, he recommends, “should be used in preparation for exercise, [in order to help] the bowels and [open] the pores of the skin.” The rubbing technique should use a rough towel and should continue until the skin shows “a florid blush.” The purpose of the massage was to remove “effete matter” from the body. To the modern ear this sounds a great deal like the removal of toxins from the body, and his methods sound oddly similar to dry body brushing or fascia blasting.
2200-Year Old Greek Bathhouse Found in Red Sea Town in Egypt
In November 2022, archaeologists announced they had discovered a 2,200-year-old bathhouse at Berenike, a town in Egypt by the Red Sea. Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: The giant bathhouse has two tholoi (circular structures) with 14 bathtubs in each that would have had cold or lukewarm water, as well as a separate room for hot baths. The water entered the building from two large water reservoirs fed by a single well. It's possible that a gymnasium may have been built to the west of it, Marek Woźniak, an assistant professor at the Polish Academy of Science's Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, told Live Science. Woźniak is in charge of researching remains from Berenike that date to ancient Egypt's Hellenistic period (circa 323 B.C. to 30 B.C.), the time between the death of Alexander the Great and the death of Cleopatra VII. During this time, Greek culture, including architectural styles, flourished in the Middle East. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science November 9, 2022]
Greek bath in Egypt
At the time that the bathhouse's waters were flowing, Berenike had a sizable military presence and was a hub for imported goods and war elephants from East Africa, said Woźniak. This bathhouse likely would have been used by people involved in these operations, such as ship crews, said Woźniak. The heavy military involvement means that most of the people living at Berenike at this time were probably men, Woźniak said. This bathhouse likely would have been used as a place to relax by the military personnel posted there. Bathhouses in Hellenistic times often "served as places to meet and relax after work or sporting exercise, hence they were often combined with gymnasia [gyms]" Wozniak said.
No writing was found at the bathhouse, but archaeologists unearthed coins and pieces of pottery, finds which helped archaeologists date the bathhouse's active years, Woźniak said. The excavations at Berenike are led by Mariusz Gwiazda, an assistant professor of archaeology at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, and Steven Sidebotham, a history professor at the University of Delaware who specializes in the ancient global economy.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2024