All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean

All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean — page 5 — Chapter 1 Ancient Grime 3000 BCE to 306 CE Telemachus on Tour Pylos and Sparta twelfth century BCE Telemachus was miserable His father Odysseus had left for the Trojan War when Telemachus was a baby He’d been gone for 20 years and no one knew where he was Telemachus’s house was filled with rude violent men who wanted to marry his mother Penelope They ate his food drank his wine and sang their drunken songs all night Telemachus hated these bullies but he was young and awkward and didn’t know how to get rid of them The goddess Athena came to him in disguise and told him that his childhood was over now he must be strong and go searching for his father If he found that Odysseus was dead Athena said Telemachus must return home and kill his mother’s suitors 8 All the Dirt

All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean — page 6 — That was a scary task but Athena filled the boy with confidence and he sailed for Pylos home of King Nestor Nestor’s mansion was everything Telemachus’s disorderly house was not and Nestor was the perfect host ready with food drink a jug of water for hand washing and above all a bath Important guests in ancient Greece were normally offered a bath when they arrived as well as a servant to bathe them but because his father was a famous king and warrior Telemachus got extra-special treatment The person who bathed him was none other than the king’s youngest daughter Polycaste and she rubbed him with olive oil after the bath Wearing a tunic that Polycaste had given him Telemachus emerged from his bath as handsome as a young god Everywhere he went people noticed his resemblance to his father but the boy also wanted to act like his father resourceful and brave Next he traveled to Sparta where King Menelaus and his queen Helen welcomed him There too he was given a hot bath with all the trimmings this time by servants The courtesy and comfort of their palace and the respect they showed Telemachus left him with new poise Now in spite of the difficulties he was determined to find his father and to rid his house of the bullies who wanted to marry his mother Bathing Telemachus’s father Ancient Grime 3000 BCE to 306 CE 9

All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean — page 7 — The Well-Washed Family Telemachus and his parents Odysseus and Penelope are the main characters in Homer’s great adventure story The Odyssey which was written around 700 BCE They are a very clean family for reasons that would have been obvious to Greeks in Homer’s lifetime Greeks had to wash before praying and offering sacrifices to the gods and in the story Penelope frequently begs the gods to return her husband and then her son Greeks always bathed before setting out on a journey and when they arrived at the house of strangers or friends they would first be offered water to wash their hands and then a bath The Odyssey is a story full of arrivals and departures as Telemachus searches for his father and Odysseus struggles to get home Homer loved describing the preparations for these baths heating water in a copper container set on a tripod over a fire and then pouring the hot water into a tub of brass or polished stone His characters always look much much better after a bath sometimes even resembling gods partly because The Odyssey is full of magic but also because travelers on the hot dusty roads of ancient Greece really did benefit from a good soak Washing the Greek Way By the fifth century BCE if you were a boy or girl who lived in a comfortable house in Athens with servants or slaves you could clean yourself in various ways Your house would probably have a washing room next to the kitchen It would house a washstand that looked like a big birdbath called a labrum Using a jug or a basin a servant would carry water from the tank that held 10 All the Dirt

All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean — page 8 — Ta k i n g t h e P l u n ge i n Ancient India In the Bronze Age on the banks of the Indus River in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India a peaceful and prosperous civilization grew up Archaeologists call it the Indus Valley civilization Cleanliness was important to the Indus Valley people and most of their mud-brick houses had bathrooms and private wells Wastewater from the bathrooms went into covered underground drains Archaeologists can usually identify the bathroom in one of the surviving Indus Valley houses by the waste drains and the better-than-average quality of the brickwork In 1926 archaeologists excavating the Indus Valley city of Mohenjo-Daro discovered what may be the world’s oldest public bath Built around 3000 BCE the pool measures 12 meters 39 feet by 7 meters 23 feet and is at its deepest at 2 4 meters 8 feet about the size of a regular classroom Many religions include washing and bathing in their ceremonies of purification and renewal and scholars believe that this Great Bath as it is called was used for religious ceremonies the household’s water or from the nearest well He might fill the labrum with water or just pour it over you The washing room might also include a pottery hip bath big enough for you to sit in with legs straight out in front but not to lie down in which drained through a channel to the outside Keeping clean was harder for people without money or servants Poor people might use the nearest well for a daily wash and make an occasional visit to the public bath These baths were either free or had a very low admission price so that everyone could afford to go 11 Ancient Grime 3000 BCE to 306 CE

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