I assume some of you re-enactors have tried to clean yourselves with olive oil and strigils. I've never done it, so I'm curious. Does it work? Did you feel clean afterwards? What was it like?
It works perfectly. Of course, also in Roman times, it seems to be a pre-cleaning stage before entering the bath. So after you've cleaner your skin you can go and relax in the bath-house.
As for effectivity. It removes mud pretty good. Of course a thin film of oil (and thereby oily smell) will stay. I like to show the people the effectivines on demonstrations. It feels nice to your skin and cleans good.
Scented oil would make a nice cologne. There are quite a few herbs and other fragrances that were mixed in oils. They didn't have a problem with the smell of olive oil. That was just the way people smelled.
But I think the water bath would have preceded the oil/strigil, though. Imagine all those people who had been oiled getting in the caldarium: the oil scum on the surface of the water would coat every person who stepped out of the pool. But that's just my opinion. I don't have any citations to back it up.
We often ask people at our events if they have washed their hands, and if their hands are clean. Then we put scented oil on their skin, talking about perfume and fragrances, then we strigil off the oil. You'd be amazed at the goo that sticks to the strigil. People go away with a new respect for Roman ways.
What we don't tell them, is that most of the "dirt" is really skin cells that have been softened and removed with the edge of the strigil. Exfoliation is what we call that nowadays, and people pay good money to get someone to exfoliate their bodies.
Quote:Imagine all those people who had been oiled getting in the caldarium: the oil scum on the surface of the water would coat every person who stepped out of the pool.
Marcus Aurelius suggests that was exactly what it was like!:
Just as your bath appears to you - oil, sweat, filth, sticky water and all kinds of disgusting things - such is each part of life, and every object. (Meditations, VIII, 24)
If this was what the emperor's own bath looked like, you can picture the foul state of the public pools...
Not a re-enactor but have done it a few times and I absolutely love it after a fantastic workout. It eases the muscles and gives the body a raw, refreshing, feeling. Hard to describe.
I've wondered what the order was: oil first and then bath, or bath first and then oil. I thought I had read someone talking about towels at some point (Martial? Seneca?) and I wondered if the oily residue was wiped off prior to the bath. If so, judging from Marcus, they couldn't get it all.
Edit: I just checked Gregory Hays' translation of Meditations. He has:
Quote:Like the baths - oil, sweat, dirt, grayish water, all of it disgusting. The whole of life, all of the visible world.
Now that is a bit more vague, and may not imply oil in the water. :???: However, I think the Loeb translations are more literal.
As far as I'm aware we have indeed sources to suggest the oil and scrubbing was indeed done before taking the bath, to make sure the water stays a lot cleaner.
Quote:M. Demetrius post=324170 Wrote:Imagine all those people who had been oiled getting in the caldarium: the oil scum on the surface of the water would coat every person who stepped out of the pool.
Marcus Aurelius suggests that was exactly what it was like!:
Just as your bath appears to you - oil, sweat, filth, sticky water and all kinds of disgusting things - such is each part of life, and every object. (Meditations, VIII, 24)
If this was what the emperor's own bath looked like, you can picture the foul state of the public pools...
So life is a tub of foul bath water? That's a far cry from Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Of course, Gump was a halfwit and Aurelius was a philosopher.
I'd say that considering how many years M.A. spent on campaigns, even an oily bath must have seemed pretty luxurious by his troops' standards!
In all seriousness, though, we have to remember that Marcus Aurelius most likely didn't want to be an Emperor in the first place. I'm sure that to a philosopher, dealing with Imperial politics and all the problems of being a chief of state would seem like a filthy cesspit in which to bathe.
Besides, regardless of the actual state of his bath, a philosopher would never turn down a good metaphor!
Isn't it spelt
strigil??
And all these years I assumed it was hot bath to open the pores, strigil and oil to clean the pores so oil comes off with sweat. Then a cold plunge perhaps?
It can't have been a disgusting pool of oily scum as I'd doubt the public baths would be so popular! I'd rather smell than end up wearing someone elses scummy left overs
One also assumes it depends on how much oil you use!
I had understood this was an adoption of the Greek practice, of oiling oneself
For the gym, then scraping it off after excercise?
Quote:Isn't it spelt strigil??
Um. Perhaps. :whistle:
Quote:And all these years I assumed it was hot bath to open the pores, strigil and oil to clean the pores so oil comes off with sweat. Then a cold plunge perhaps?
Maybe the steam room first to get a good sweat going, then an oil and scrape, jump in the hot bath to remove the residue of the oil, then the cold plunge...?
Either way, there would be a certain amount of oily residue getting into the bath, and if there's a lot of people using it there could have been quite a scum building up...
I think Mary Beard made quite a lot of the potentially barf-enducing qualities of Roman baths (no plugholes, so somebody's got to bale out the water once it gets too filthy... gah!)
Then again, modern swimming pools may contain chlorine, but also a lot of... other
substances. Future generations may well turn their noses up at our own bathing practices...
From what I understand on the layouts of Roman baths,its a progression from cold, tepid to hot, then back again. Seems weird, but then that might expalain the oil on the water idea.