Civilization has truly peaked with the communal butt sponge
Civilization has truly peaked with the communal butt sponge
Explanation: The ancient Romans used the xylospongium or tersorium for wiping purposes - a sea sponge on a stick. How lovely! In public restrooms, they would have been shared, which is probably not all that hygienic regardless of the fact that they rinsed the sponge after each use, or let it soak in vinegar or salt water when idle. Still, civilization! What marvels, right?
My sphincter winced the most at saltwater rinse.
Better than iodine, I suppose.It's funny where observation leads one - the Romans didn't understand why salt water was good for sanitizing (that most microbes are not halophilic), but recognized by practice that it was good. There's a bit in De Architectura where Vitruvius discusses how a town dug a channel from the sea to turn the nearby swamps into a brackish marsh, and that disease rates plummeted afterwards. If memory serves he attributes it to 'poisonous vapors' being removed by the saline water, while we would recognize it as destroying the ideal environment for mosquitos and other such insects.
What. You don't know how to use the three seashells? Check this guy out everyone.
Wild that, by votes, this reference is recognized by more people than who have know the joy of that bidet life.
Bidet gang, represent
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!!!
All 36 of you lol
Don't get me started on how coddled the modern anus is.
And they used to wash by scraping themselves and covering their body in olive oil. I remember reading about Romans laughing at "barbarian" foreigners from Gaul who would create bars out of animal fat, ashes and flowers to wash themselves with, like a bunch of heathens.
Sorry to be that guy, but it seems the romans didn't wipe with an sponge on a stick.
From a mural in the baths form the Secen Sages in Ostia Antica, it seems it was use to clean the toilets after use.
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The idea that the tersorium was a toilet brush is very much a minority view.
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That line ("Use the tersorium") points much more towards the use of the tersorium to wipe than to clean toilets.
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Meanwhile the Greeks make due with pottery shards