beauty Published 16th February 2021 What history's bathing rituals reveal about status, purity and power Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNN In many parts of the world, cleansing one's body has become an individual, daily ritual -- a quick, steamy shower in the morning or a longer bath to unwind at night. But historically, our bathing habits have been imbued with deeper meanings. In Ancient Greece, bathhouses were a place for men to wash after sport or swap philosophical discussions (some even contained libraries), while in the Middle Ages, men and women in Europe gave up bathing altogether, for ...