Image: Matt Collins
-
Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?
Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like to want to kill yourself? Does “free will”...
Read More »
The last time I visited Boston's Museum of Fine Arts was in 2004 to see a Rembrandt exhibition. But I might have wandered away from the works of the Dutch master in search of an ancient Greek artifact, had I known at the time that the object in question, a wine vessel, was in the museum's collection. According to the 2012 Christmas issue of the BMJ (preacronymically known as the British Medical Journal), the 2,500-year-old cup, created by one of the anonymous artisans who helped to shape Western culture, is adorned with the image of a man wiping his butt.
That revelation appears in an article entitled “Toilet Hygiene in the Classical Era,” by French anthropologist and forensic medicine researcher Philippe Charlier and his colleagues. Their report examines tidying techniques used way back—and the resultant medical issues. Such a study is in keeping with the BMJ's tradition of offbeat subject matter for its late December issue—as noted in this space five years ago: “Had the Puritans never left Britain for New England, they might later have fled the British Medical Journal to found the New England Journal of Medicine.”
The toilet hygiene piece reminds us that practices considered routine in one place or time may be unknown elsewhere or elsetime. The first known reference to toilet paper in the West does not appear until the 16th century, when satirist François Rabelais mentions that it doesn't work particularly well at its assigned task. Of course, the ready availability of paper of any kind is a relatively recent development. And so, the study's authors say, “anal cleaning can be carried out in various ways according to local customs and climate, including with water (using a bidet, for example), leaves, grass, stones, corn cobs, animal furs, sticks, snow, seashells, and, lastly, hands.” Sure, aesthetic sensibility insists on hands being the choice of last resort, but reason marks seashells as the choice to pull up the rear. “Squeezably soft” is the last thing to come to mind about, say, razor clams.
Charlier et al. cite no less an authority than philosopher Seneca to inform us that “during the Greco-Roman period, a sponge fixed to a stick (tersorium) was used to clean the buttocks after defecation; the sponge was then replaced in a bucket filled with salt water or vinegar water.” Talk about your low-flow toilets. The authors go on to note the use of rounded “fragments of ceramic known as ‘pessoi’ (meaning pebbles), a term also used to denote an ancient board game.” (The relieved man on the Museum of Fine Arts's wine cup is using a singular pessos for his finishing touches.) The ancient Greek game pessoi is not related to the ancient Asian game Go, despite how semantically satisfying it would be if one used stones from Go after one Went.
According to the BMJ piece, a Greek axiom about frugality cites the use of pessoi and their purpose: “Three stones are enough to wipe.” The modern equivalent is probably the purposefully self-contradictory “toilet paper doesn't grow on trees.”
Some pessoi may have originated as ostraca, pieces of broken ceramic on which the Greeks of old inscribed the names of enemies. The ostraca were used to vote for some pain-in-the-well-you-know to be thrown out of town—hence, “ostracized.” The creative employment of ostraca as pessoi allowed for “literally putting faecal matter on the name of hated individuals,” Charlier and company suggest. Ostraca have been found bearing the name of Socrates, which is not surprising considering they hemlocked him up and threw away the key. (Technically, he hemlocked himself, but we could spend hours in Socratic debate about who took ultimate responsibility.)
Putting shards of a hard substance, however polished, in one's delicate places has some obvious medical risks. “The abrasive characteristics of ceramic,” the authors write, “suggest that long term use of pessoi could have resulted in local irritation, skin or mucosal damage, or complications of external haemorrhoids.”
Rights & Permissions
See what we're tweeting about
13 Comments
Add Comment
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's reflect that in the 21st century, perhaps less than 20% of the people on the planet use toilet paper and have the whole razzmatazz of a flush toilet + shower.
@sachi_bbsr
The question is, how does a blind person know that he has wiped enough?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisArabs traditionally use the right hand for eating and the left hand for other duties, without benefit of paper or pebbles. Osama bin Laden was left handed, which brings up interesting questions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot really. Left handed or not, Muslims (and Hindus) prohibit the use of the left hand for eating regardless of handedness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe oddest thing is, I find this article much more interesting and well written than the majority on SA. Perhaps they have found their niche.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I was deployed to Iraq, the locals working for us would rarely use our beloved portable toilets and would just grab a bottle of water and head out into the field. This was in 2004.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan't really blame them one bit since those things were almost unbearably hot, and didn't smell much better too.
I do find it odd how many see peeing into a bottle when civilized facilities aren't readily available (without any spillage, that is sealed well and disposed of thoughtfully) as something "gross", but doing the same into a toilet isn't questioned. Interesting how some can become so disconnected from the basics of life, that when confronted without the blinders we've socially established, it's somehow repulsive. The same with many immersed by the comforts of "the good-life" and modern sensitivities here in the U.S. if they had to witness life as our relatives did just 100 years ago and fully knew the processes their everyday consumables got to them, they would be vegetarians or paralyzed from disgust. Out of sight, out of mind--even if we're staring right at it.
Peeing in a bottle. Why bother if you've got the great outdoors available? better to 'water the trees'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDavid, they use the water to rinse their left hand after wiping. Get it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI sure never check the toilet paper to see if I'm done. One can feel when one is clean. I'm sure it's the same with blind people. Unless your comment was just trolling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany may not know this, but even though the Old Testament is not concerned with how you should clean yourself after defecating, it is practical enough to instruct you to carry a stick in your belt, and use it to cover what you just did!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a microbiologist and an interest is what most other people find unmentionable I love the story! So many fascinating details. This kind of history, so wittingly presented is just great. Thanks!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot prohibited.. rather discouraged.. if one is left-handed it will be harder for that person to change
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGrowing up on a farm I found the Wards and Sears catalogs were more useful than just as wish books, and they served two purposes at the same time equally well, well maybe not. Now however I believe the high point of a civilization is a clean arse and I think the bidet serves the purpose while saving the trees that can be watered however you wish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this