The last classes of passages that require to be adduced in this connexion relate how the women washed the men. They are all like each other, and so only one need be quoted. In the ‘Odyssey’[195] it is said that “the beautiful Polycaste, youngest daughter of Nestor, son of Neleus, washed Telemachus; and after she had washed him and anointed him with olive oil, and cast upon him a beautiful cloak and tunic,” &c. A similar act is attributed to Calypso.[196] A servant of Circe bathes Ulysses “out of a great caldron, pouring the water over head and shoulders.”[197] The δμωαί, or slaves, bathed Peisistratos and Telemachus,[198] and the exact words used in this passage are repeated in 8, 454; 17, 88, and similar words occur in the ‘Odyssey.’[199] Only once is reference made to the custom in the ‘Iliad,’[200] where it is said Hebe bathed Ares. Mr. Gladstone says the natural meaning of the words would seem to be that the women actually poured water over the men, and actually washed them and anointed them with oil. But he was shocked by the idea that young maidens should perform such acts, and some critics, both before and after him, have spoken of the immodesty of the acts.[201] Mr. Gladstone thought that “it is almost of itself incredible that habitually, among persons of the highest rank and character, and without any necessity at all, such things should take placed,[202] and as it is not credible, so neither, I think, is it true.” And he gets rid of all difficulties by explaining the words to mean that the maidens brought the water and oil to the men and left them to wash and anoint themselves. Mr. Gladstone finds support for his opinion in the ‘Odyssey,’[203] where Ulysses says: “Nausicaa washed me in the river and gave me these clothes”; and Ameis agrees with him. In fact, the words must mean that Nausicaa supplied him with the means of bathing, for Ulysses plainly refers to the narrative in the ‘Odyssey,’[204] where Nausicaa orders her maidservants to give food and drink to the stranger, and to wash him in the river, where there is shelter from the wind. And then it is related how the attendant maidens brought Ulysses to a sheltered part of the river, placed clothes beside him, gave him the moist oil in a golden flask, and urged him to bathe in the currents of the stream. But the circumstances of Nausicaa and Ulysses, as described in the episode, are altogether unique. Ulysses comes entirely unawares on the princess. She is completely disconcerted at first, and shows unusual presence of mind in facing the strange adventure. Ulysses himself is also embarrassed, as he shrinks from appearing nude before a beautiful princess, disfigured as he was by the brine of the sea and by his long wrestling with the waves. It could not be expected, therefore, that Ulysses, in concisely narrating what had taken place, should be precise in the exact use of words. And, therefore, though λοῦσε (bathed) may