The History of Baths

What is a Bath?

A bath is the process of soaking in aqueous matter such as water, mud, steam, or milk. The function of bathing is not always a cleansing process it may be undertaken for curative, mystical, religious, or ritualistic purposes. Ritual has been a part of man’s life since time immemorial; it has been a way of making sense of our world.

Historically bathing has undergone a transition from a ritual public bathing in rivers, to a social, intensely communal practise begun in ancient Greece, but raised to art form in ancient Rome, to something akin to a fate worse than death in Tudor times. Now in modern times bathing is an intensely private and luxurious pastime with power showers, invigorating gels and heated towels, and normally carried out behind closed doors, even if the bath can accommodate more than one person.

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