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 in Fig. 86, 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. 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. The vase painting, Fig. 87, 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
[Illustration: FIG. 86.]
[Illustration: FIG. 87.]
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.
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 (λήκυθος), 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, in Fig. 88 (Frontis.), 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
favourite subject in works of art, especially connected with the
arrangement of the hair and veil Thus, in
[Illustration: FIG. 89.]
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