Bathing has no doubt been part of the history of mankind since out earliest ancestors first sank their toes into the local watering hole. From the Egyptians to the Greeks, the act of bathing held social and religious significance, with bathing reaching its zenith under the Romans. As one of my college professors once said, the Romans were the last of the red-hot bathers. Indeed, in typical Roman fashion, bathing was taken to a grand scale.
Taking to the baths was a normal part of Roman life. Magnificent palaces were built to soak in the waters. Men and women bathed together in public, which of course led to bathing becoming more than just a casual social occasion. The Romans were good at many things, with pleasure topping the list. In time, the baths became places for pleasure, complete with banquet tables set up and the usual Roman orgy taking place until the Emperor Adrian banned same-sex bathing. Thermal baths were the favorite of the flourishing empire, and were dotted across the Roman-held lands. Indeed, if there was warm water to be found, a Roman could be found bathing around it.
As the empire fell, bathing practices continued, despite Christians who labeled bathing as a pagan practice. In medieval Germany, France and England, public baths continued to exist with the same lustful force that propelled the baths of the Romans. Public baths eventually became so decadent, they were nothing more than houses of prostitution.
While bathing started a slow decline in Europe, the Middle East picked up the slack with the Turkish bath. Although without the wanton excess of the Europeans. Turkish baths were often near mosques, and used by the religious before going to prayers. The ritual started with the bather entering a salon area. When the "tella" or attendant appeared, the bather was led to a much warmer room to remove their clothes. Then the bather would be led to yet a third room full of hot steam. There, the bather would be lathered up and then rinsed off for the final act of a deep massage. After that, the bather is sent on to the final step to recuperate in a cooler room before shuffling out the door. For a first-hand description of what a Turkish bathing experience might be like, check out towards the end of chapter 34 in "The Innocents Abroad," by Mark Twain. If you have a romantic idea about what a Turkish bath might be like, and you like your romantic idea, then pass on reading Mark Twain's description.
When the Crusades went into force, French and English knights came in contact with the wonders of the Turkish bath, and put their own spin on it. In England, as a ritual for initiation, a knight would be soaked from head to toe. Of course at such an important event, the knight could only be bathed by a bevy of fawning virgins tossing rose petals into his sacred bath water!
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the rich were able to afford their own personal tubs, and would often entertain friends there in style. Like the 1970's hot tub boom, parties would be held around the bath as a way to conserve water--among other things.
The plagues of the 16th Century put a real damper on bathing. Except for Nostradamus and a few other enlightened souls, bathing was considered a health hazard, and to be avoided at all costs. There was a belief that a thin layer of oil covered the body protecting the body from the plague and other diseases. Bathing would remove that protective layer, leaving the pores open to all sorts of horrible germs and bacteria. As a result of the relaxed bathing rules, perfume sales soared. Despite being stuffed into costumes of velvet, silk, and lace, men and women wouldn't bathe. Instead, they would douse themselves with anything that smelled good. Orange-flower water, rose petals, and cinnamon were used to fight off unpleasant personal odors. So serious were people about staying away from water, that the Palace of Versailles had been built without plumbing. Such practices were not unusual, and it wasn't until the 19th century that bathing finally had its full and rightful comeback.
The Industrial Revolution, with its gift of running water for everyone, brought the joy of a personal bath home to the masses. Eventually, with standardize measurements and mass production, the bath itself became a five-foot ceramic shell that remained a stationary part of the bathroom, with a sink and toilet included in the same room.
Today, the public is once again finding the pleasures of the bath. Whirlpool tubs are common, as are hot tubs and saunas. Thankfully, the backward thinking that a bath is dangerous has been proven by medical science to be false, and instead has been proven to be beneficial.
Our bodies are made of water. We need it to survive. We can't escape it. As children, we might have screamed and fled in terror away from the bath, but once seated in the water with a cloud of bubble surrounding us and a few rubber duckies to keep us company, we would quickly settle down and relax. The hypnotic pull of the water would gently surround us, and all thoughts of fleeing in terror would be gone. All was right with the world.
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