baths

baths in architecture. Ritual bathing is traceable to ancient Egypt, to prehistoric cities of the Indus River valley, and to the early Aegean civilizations. Remains of bathing apartments dating from the Minoan period exist in the palaces at Knossos and Tiryns. The ancient Greeks devised luxurious bathing provisions, with heated water, plunges, and showers. Bathing in public facilities, or thermae, was developed by the Romans to a unique degree. Thermae, probably copied after the Greek gymnasia, had impressive interiors, with rich mosaics, rare marbles, and gilded metals. Water, brought by aqueducts, was stored in reservoirs, heated to various temperatures, and distributed by piping to the bath apartments. Certain rooms were kept heated by means of furnaces which sent hot air into lines of flues beneath floors and in the walls. There are ruins of public baths in Pompeii, and in Rome there exist extensive remains of the thermae of Titus (AD 80), of Caracalla (AD 212-35), and of Diocletian (AD 302).

baths The heat of Palestine made frequent baths necessary, and in the NT period the Romans built public baths. It was long customary to provide water for guests to wash their feet on arrival at a house (Judg. 19: 21), and an oval tub for this has been excavated at Samaria. Bathing was a means of ritual cleansing (e.g. of Aaron and sons in Exod. 29: 4) and for purification after leprosy (Lev. 14: 8–9) and is a potent symbol of moral cleanliness (e.g. Jer. 4: 14) or of vindictive triumph (Ps. 58: 10).

bathe / bā[voicedth]/ • v. [intr.] wash by immersing one's body in water. ∎  spend time in the ocean or a lake, river, or swimming pool for pleasure. ∎  [tr.] soak or wipe gently with liquid to clean or soothe: she bathed and bandaged my knee. ∎  [tr.] wash (someone) in a bath: they bathed the baby. ∎  [tr.] (usu. be bathed) fig. suffuse or envelop in something: the park lay bathed in sunshine mussels bathed in garlic butter. DERIVATIVES: bath·er n.