Greek Baths and Spas - Bathing As a High Art

Greek baths and spas

Years ago the Greek authorities tried to advertise Greece with the slogan: 'You were born in Greece.' It failed probably because most people did not understand what they were trying to say.

In truth, if you are talking about spas and baths you can, stretching it a bit, say you were born in Greece. Because it was here that spas and baths were brought to a high art.

Frenchman, Rene Ginouves in 20th century excavations of a Greek bath showed that the bath -- the laconicum as it was called - was an extension to the gymnasium. So athletes charged around in sporting events like the decathalon and then recovered in the spa. That was not the only use. In the semi-circle of the exedra within the baths quiet, contemplative discourse among such intellectuals as Plato and Socrates took place.

Although Greek baths were, indeed, the parent of the Roman baths they never grew to those immense proportions. They were smaller, more intimate, more suited for purpose.

To use the terms of the time the small Greek laconica became eventually the Roman balneum and finally the extravagant Roman thermae. So you may not have been born in Greece but spa practices - many used to this day - started there.

Bathing was important to the Greeks and it was probably an essential part of daily life for at least 800 years before the birth of Christ. Communal bathing in an organized sense originated in Greek gymnasia.

The Greeks were very keen on being physically fit and athletic - they thought of it as being essential attributes of a civilized person.

As a result baths, gymnasia, were to be found in every important Greek city.

And this is true to this day. There is no city of which the writer is aware in Greece which does not have a spa. No, it is not quite like the gymnasia of old. It is not, normally, the daily meeting place of the town elders. You are not expected to work out in the gymnasia - and there may well not be one -- until you are hot and sticky. But the basic idea of massage and water soothing the mind and body were there.

Some things you will probably not see - although there are still some - are the swimming pools, known as kolymbethrai which were filled with very cold water which was supposed to be refreshing. In fact, cold water plunge baths were most surely associated with athletic competitions. In ancient Greeks athletics were almost holy and the ice cold bath was part of the routine which was almost religious in intensity.

Public baths in Greece, known as balaneia, were common but bathing without the gymnastics attached, was popular, extremely popular, but was never regarded as a form of exercise.

They were purely for relaxation and rejuvenation.

The result of all this activity meant that baths appeared all over Greece and from 1st century B.C.E. the waters were properly heated. The system was quite sophisticated.

They even got to the stage of having a dual-purpose stove that boiled the water which heated several chambers at once and a furnace-boiler combination that was able to heat many bath chambers at the same time were more advanced ways the Greeks heated their baths.

The Greek baths were simple in structure, but they offered various types of baths for patrons to use. The bath was an essential activity in ancient Greek cities and was extremely influential as the forerunner to elaborate Roman bath houses.

The aleipterion, well-known within the first Roman bath facilities, were dry, heated rooms also used in the early days of the Greek gymnasium. It was here that warm-oil massage was given. Which was, indeed, the start of the modern idea of spa treatment.

Perhaps the father of wellness treatment was Hippocrates.

Hippocrates used keen observation, logical thought, principles of diagnosis and treatment and a humble relationship with the patient.

Hippocrates used the word anatripsis to designate the process of rubbing. Douglas Graham, M.D., cites the following quote from writings attributed to Hippocrates: "The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly also in rubbing (his word, anatripsis)." The complete text containing this quote is said by Graham to be "the earliest definite information about massage."

Hippocrates described anatripsis as stroking the extremities upward (toward the heart) and returning with a light stroke back up again to push the venous and lymph upward toward the heart. These strokes could be hard, soft or moderate, depending on the condition of the tissues and the effect desired.

This later, during Roman times, was refined and became, perhaps, more complex.

Claudius Galenus wrote, "The rubbings should be of many sorts, with strokes and circuits of the hands, carrying them not only from above down and from below up, but also subvertically, obliquely, transversely and subtransversely... But I direct that the strokes and circuits of the hands should be made of many sorts, in order that so far as possible all the muscle fibers should be rubbed in every direction."

Thus when you attend a spa in Greece you are following in a great tradition which was, in both Greece and Roman culture, a way of life.

Some practices have changed.

Nowadays, soap, in one form or another, is almost universally used to clean the body, but the ancient Greeks and Romans first smeared their wet bodies with a mixture of pumice and ashes, and then applied a liberal dose of olive oil over that. Then, they used a curved metal scraper called a strigil to scrape of this "muck", which would take the dirt and grime that had accumulated on the skin along with it. The body, thus cleaned, was ready to immerse itself in the large warm or hot water pools for a long soak.

In fact, this particular treatment is still available in some spas in Greece and is highly recommended. The amount of muck that a strigil can scrape off your body is nothing less than astounding and you feel much fresher and cleaner after such a treatment.

Soap basically started with the Romans so that by the second century AD, Galen was recommending soap for cleansing and therapeutic purposes. The Greeks basically stayed with the strigil.

In Greece today, because of this great tradition, you are spoiled for choice. Every town has a spa which manages to blend modern techniques with the great spa traditions of the country. Most spas in Greece tend to be resort style. This is simply because Greece is a country of islands. In fact there are 1,400 islands, 227 of them inhabited. And it would be a fair bet that almost all of those 227 have a spa of some sort.

Some examples:

Thermae Sylla SPA Wellness Hotel which is on the island of Evia, located off the eastern coast of Central Greece. It is, of course, a hotel but also boasts that it is the most modern spa-resort in Greece.

Thermae Sylla Spa, which is famed because of its medicinal waters was built in 1987. Among the guests have been Aristotle Onassis, Maria Callas, Sir Winston Churchill, Omar Sharif and Greta Garbo so you will be joining an illustrious guest list.

What makes Thermae Sylla Spa unique is its high quality thermal waters, since the Thermae Sylla Spa is built over a group of Edipsos' natural medicinal hot thermal springs. The waters come up through the rocks, from a depth of 3.000 meters and at a temperature of 75ºC.

You get there by ferry from either Arkitsa (easily reached from Athens) or from Glyfa if you are coming from central Greece).

Polichnitos Hot Springs are on Lesbos island (there are many other similar establishments on the island) and are about 45 km from the capital of Mitlini and the story is the small village was forced to move to its present location away from the sea in fear of Saracen pirates. It is possible.

Spa waters spout from numerous springs passing through primary and secondary volcanic porous rock. Water temperatures range between 67°C and 92°C (bath temperatures range between 42°C and 44°C.) These are considered to be the warmest baths in Europe and are rich in mineral.s The baths and pools are housed in a series of separate buildings under tall eucalyptus trees. These are the old buildings, which have been operating for numerous years, but have been renovated to fit modern needs and include both old and new water channels.

There is another building complex that houses the oblong dormitories and vaulted old spa. The Polichnitos thermal baths may well be the oldest in Greece. Only open in the summer which starts, in Greece, on April 1 and extends to November 1.

Rodos Park Suites & Spa Hotel is in Rhodes in the Dodecanese Islands and is a small luxury hotel which has been awarded the title of Best City Hotel of Greece having been totally renovated in 2008. It offers a wide range of modern spa treatments enhanced by the ancient traditions of Greece.

And one can keep listing them.

On the magical island of Kos is the Diamond hotel which houses the Aithra Spa, renowned for its wellness philosophy and offering a vast range of spa treatments in a luxurious, Zen atmosphere. It is one of the largest spas on Kos island. It also has an indoor heated freshwater swimming pool 80 square meters as well as the spa & wellness centre which pays tribute to the long Greek history with a gymnasium attached.

And on and on it goes. Greece is full of spas and health centers all supported by the long and living tradition of spa and wellness treatment which has lasted thousands of years. Perhaps they were right. You were born in Greece. Or, if that is not strictly correct, you can be reborn in Greece.

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