In what part of the edifice stood the bathing-room (βαλανεῖον, so called from its having, in remoter ages, been heated with acorns, βάλανοι)[328] I have been unable to discover, though it appears certain that, even so far back as the heroic ages, a chamber was always set apart for the bath. At first, doubtless, they were content with cold water; but that this was soon succeeded by warm water[329] may be conjectured from the tradition ascribing the first use of it to Heracles, whence warm baths were ever afterwards called the Baths of Heracles. ----- Footnote 328: Etym. Mag. 186, 8. Athen. i. 18. Phot. Bib. 60. b. Hesiod. Frag. 53. Baths, at Sparta, were common to both sexes.—Goguet, v. 428. Cf. Pashley, Travels. i. 183. Footnote 329: Baccius, de Thermis, p. 365. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1034. ----- The form of the Puelos,[330] or vessel in which they bathed, appears occasionally to have resembled an Egyptian sarcophagus, and to have been sometimes round, and constructed of white or green marble, or glass, or bronze, or common stone, or wood,[331] in which case it would seem to have been portable. In the baths of Pompeii the marble basins, whether parallelogramatic or circular, were of spacious dimensions, and raised two or three feet above the pavement. A step for the convenience of the bathers extends round it on the inside, and at the bottom are marble cushions upon which they rested. In the labra of the Grecian female baths rose a smooth cippus in the form of a truncated cone, denominated omphalos, on which the ladies sat while chatting with their female companions.[332] ----- Footnote 330: Cf. Etymol. Mag. 151, 52, seq. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1055. Footnote 331: Baccius, de Therm. p. 399. Footnote 332: Athen. xi. 104. ----- When once the warm bath came into use, people employed it to excess, bathing as frequently as five or six times a day, and in water so hot as to half scald themselves.[333] Immediately afterwards, to prevent the skin from chapping, they anointed their bodies with oils and perfumed unguents.[334] Occasionally, instead of plunging into the water, they sat upright, as is still the custom in the hammāms of the East, while the water was poured with a sort of ladle on their head and shoulders. ----- Footnote 333: Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1034. Footnote 334: Plut. Alexand. § 40. ----- The public baths, of which no full description referring to very ancient times remains, were numerous in all Hellenic cities, more particularly at Athens, where they were surmounted with domes,[335] and received their light from above. These establishments were frequented by all classes of women who could afford to pay for such luxury, rich, poor, honourable, and dishonourable. ----- Footnote 335: Athen. xi. 104. -----