After we ate and drank well ….we said that a little amount of wine was permitted because of winter time… it’s time for baths and creams!!!
What did they recommend?
They suggested four baths during January…Yes, yes…correctly … four baths were enough! The water was for bath not for playing. Our ancestors were savers with water, not like us who switch on the tap and let the water flowing and we forget to switch of it! And here we are, the scientists warn us that we will have a water shortage in a few years! At the end we will find ourselves in the situation of our ancestors…we will measure the water!!!
So the baths were four … do not forget it …and they used soap. Not an ordinary soap…forget the trade soaps! They used handmade soap which they made by soda solution into wine. After taking their bath, a cream was the next… They called it “unction”. And this was handmade … I think our ancestors were miraculous, not like us who want everything right now without any effort! How did they make this cream? Here are the best!!! They put 3 drams aloe …the aloe is miraculous… 1 dram myrrh and two egg yolks. Now why did they want them?
Anyway they mixed them all very carefully and they smeared their body with it! Now this amount of cream was appropriate and enough for one person … it was not for sharing each other, so don’t argue who is going to take it first … then they took their bath… There are two different opinions for that. Some recommended that the cream should be put before the bath and others recommended the opposite. If you take the brave decision to do it, experiment with both versions … Tell us which is the best of them in order to know …They asked others to pour on their bodies three buckets of water… we said before there was no wasting…After they sweated a lot, they carefully swiped away the cream from all over their body. Now there was a second cream. It was handmade too using ingredients as cool wine, rose oil and egg yolks! I think that the egg yolks might be miraculous because they used them too much…
Think about an idea…some of us who have elevated cholesterol and of the others who care about their health…Instead of throwing the egg yolks, we could gather them in order to make some emulsions and creams!!!
Do not ask me about the smell! I suspect that the rose oil and the myrrh would make their miracle! I can’t think something else, because the experts suggested the” naughty activities” after the baths! Well, yes, the “ungodly” people or rather better the devout ones did everything with no wasting… four times were enough during a month!!!
Their instructions were accurate … in order to have a good month!!!
In the next February is coming… stay with us!!!
Article by Kyriaki Solomonidou, AthensTrainers® Associate
SOURCE: TASTES OF BYZANTIUM: The cousine of a legendary empire, Andrew Dalby