The word designated (2.) the _washing_ which was accomplished by the water. In the comedies of Aristophanes, the women in revolt, warn the men who threaten to assail them,—“If you happen to have soap, we will give you _a bath_ (_loutron_);” which they do, by dashing buckets of water over them. Thereupon, the men run to the police, complaining,—“Do you not know what a _washing_ (_loutron_) these have washed us, just now, and that in our clothes, and without soap?”[96] The idiomatic expression here (“to wash a washing”), indicates how very close is the relation between the verb _louo_, to wash, and its derivative, _loutron_, a washing. The one expresses the action, or doing; the other, the thing done. The same idiom presents itself in Antigone’s account of the obsequies of her slain brother Polynices. “Washing it a pure washing (_lousantes agnon loutron_),” they gathered leaves, and burned “the poor remains.”[97] Footnote 96: Οὐκ οἶσθα λουτρὸν οἷον αἵδ’ ἡμᾶς ἕλουσαν ἄρτι.—Aristophanes, Lysist. 377, 469. Footnote 97: Sophocles, Antigone, 1201. As bathing was performed by the outpouring of water on the person, the word was thence used (3.) to designate libations, performed by a like outpouring of water, in honor of gods or heroes. Thus, Agamemnon having been murdered at the instigation of his wife Clytemnestra, Orestes pours (_loutra_) _libations_ at his father’s tomb;[98] and Electra dissuades her sister Chrysothemis from fulfilling her mother’s commission, to offer (_loutra_) _libations_ at the same place, as a means of averting coming vengeance.[99] Footnote 98: Πατρὸς χέοντες λουτρά. Sophocles. Elect. 84. Footnote 99: Οὐδε λουτρὰ προσφέρειν πατρί. Ib. 434. The word designates (4.) a bathing place. Plutarch describes Alexander as speaking of “having washed off the sweat of battle (_loutrō_) _with the bath_ of Darius.”[100] In such passages, the controlling idea is not a supposed bathing vessel, but the cleansing water of the bath; as is here indicated by the form of the participle “(_apolousamenoi_), having washed off;” and by the instrumental dative “(_loutrō_), _with the bath_;” which show that, whatever the construction of the bathing place of Darius, the Greek mode was present in the mind of Alexander. The idea of _loutron_ is further illustrated by its compounds. At Athens, before a marriage, the bride was bathed with water brought from the fountain of Callirhoe, by a young girl, who was hence called (_hē loutrophoros_), “the bath-water carrier.” So, the fee for the privilege of the bath, was, _epiloutron_,—_for the bath_. Footnote 100: Ἰῶμεν, ἀπολουσάμενοι τόν ἀπο τῆς μαχῆς ἱδρώτα τῷ Δαρειοῦ λουτρῷ. Plutarch, Alexand. 20.