She sought for some clear brook to purify
The body of so dear a progeny."
Again, of Alcestis, when about to lay down her life for her husband Admetus, it is written:—
"The pious dame, before the fatal day
Of her own exit, bathed her beauteous limbs
In gentle rivulet."
Plato, also, records how the good old philosopher Socrates, before he drank the fatal cup of hemlock that was to consign him to Hades, bathed and washed himself, that he might save the women, whose duty it was, their troublesome office.[1]
A short stage in the history of the bath leads us to the discovery of springs of hot water, hot vapour, and hot air; and these very possibly suggested to man's inventive mind the means of procuring so great a luxury by his own contrivance. Homer commends one of the sources of the Scamander for its warmth, and tells us how Andromache, with matronly care, prepared a hot bath for her husband Hector, against his return from battle:—
"Her fair-haired handmaids heat the brazen urn,
The Bath preparing for her lord's return."