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Βαλανεϊον (Balaneion)
(“The Bathhouse”)

Discussion Bevilacqua 1939, 32; PCG VII (1989) 755-6; Chirico 1996, 27-33;
Marchetti 2012, 34-5.
Title The title does not appear in either of Sudas lists. Plays by the same title were
written by Amphis and Diphilus. Other plays denoting relevant places are Alcaeus’
Palaistra (unless this is a courtesan’s name; cf. Orth 2013, 14) and Antiphanes’
Mylon. Bathhouses were usually built near high-traffic areas, such as harbors, edges
of settlements, and sometimes near agorai. It seems that they were associated with
luxury; cf. Ar. Pl. 613-8 (Blepsidemus on wealth and poverty) Νή Δί’ έγώ γοϋν
έθέλω πλουτών I εύωχεϊσθαι μετά των παίδων / τής τε γυναικός, και λουσάμενος /
λιπαρός χωρών έκ βαλανείου / των χειροτεχνών / και τής πενίας καταπαρδεΐν.
“By Zeus, I want to be wealthy and, bathed and anointed with oil, to be of good
cheer with my wife and children and to fart in the faces of toilers and Poverty”. It
is no surprise, therefore, that their avoidance was associated with an ascetic life
and philosophers like the Socratics (cf. Ar. Nu. 835-7).
For the bad reputation of bathhouses, and the bathmen in particular, cf. carm.
conv. PMG 905 πόρνη και βαλανεύς τωύτόν έχουσ’ έμπεδέως έθος· έν ταύτάι
πυέλωι τόν τ’ αγαθόν τόν τε κακόν λόει “a whore and a bathman behave in precise-
ly the same habit: they wash the good man and the bad in the same tub”; Hermipp.
fr. 68 μά τόν Δί’ ού μέντοι μεθύειν τόν άνδρα χρή / τόν άγαθόν ούδέ θερμολουτεϊν
“By Zeus, a good man should not get drunk or take hot baths”; Ar. Eq. 1400-01
μεθύων τε ταϊς πόρναισι λοιδορήσεται, / κάκ τών βαλανείων πίεται τό λούτριον
“when he is drunk he shall hurl abuse with the prostitutes and he shall drink used
bathwater; adesp. com. fr. 133 ών έστι τό ζήν ούδέν άλλ’ / ή κραιπάλη, / κώμος,
βαλανεϊ’, άκρατος, άμίδες, άργία, πότος “their whole life consists of nothing but
hard drinking, revels, bathhouses, unmixed wine, chamberpots, laziness, carousal”.
Frequenting bathhouses was also considered a practice detrimental to man-
hood and fighting spirit, both in peace and in war. Cf. the debate between Better
Argument and Worse Argument in Ar. Nu. 1045-6 καίτοι τίνα γνώμην έχων
ψέγεις τά θερμά λουτρά; / ότιή κάκιστόν έστι και δειλόν ποεΐ τόν άνδρα. “‘For
what reason do you blame the warm baths?’ ‘because they are very harmful and
make men cowards’”. For a contradistinction of balaneion as a place of corruption
with palaistra as exercising manhood, cf. Ar. Nu. 1053-4 (‘Better Argument’ is
speaking) άτών νεανίσκων άε'ι δι’ ήμέρας λαλούντων / πλήρες τό βαλανεϊον ποιεί
κενάς δε τάς παλαίστρας “it’s arguments like these that make the young men
chatter all day, and fill the bath house, leaving the wrestling schools empty”; cf. [
D.] 50.34, where the trierarch Apollodorus is criticized by Polycles, his appointed
successor, that he corrupts the crew by allowing them to live in luxury and take
baths in tubs (λοϋσθαι έν βαλανείω). For Greek public bathhouses and the asso-
ciated social and urban contexts see Ginouves 1962, 183-224; Hoffmann 1999;
Winter 2006, 115-134; Triimper 2013, 33-72. For further references to balaneion