Do we know for certain they actually wiped with the sponge? Because I can imagine the sponge merely being used to transfer water from the central container to the cupped hand which is then used to clean their anus like in many cultures today. A sponge-on-a-stick having better reach from the seated position than a small jug, and no risk of breaking upon dropping nor theft. I feel like the disgust at the idea of smearing feces between strangers would be just as strong 2000 years ago as it is today.
Do we know for certain they actually wiped with the sponge?
Fairly certain. There are alternate theories, but the most accepted one is still that the sponge was used for wiping.
A sponge-on-a-stick having better reach from the seated position than a small jug, and no risk of breaking upon dropping nor theft.
… sponge-on-a-stick feels pretty stealable, at least as much as a jug. Wealthier folk would sometimes have a slave carry a personal ass-sponge for them in case they had to use the public latrines while out, which seems, to me, also to point towards the ass-wiping interpretation.
I feel like the disgust at the idea of smearing feces between strangers would be just as strong 2000 years ago as it is today.
You would be surprised at what different standards the past had. The Romans, indisputably, swished urine to whiten their teeth. And not their own urine either.
Hygiene, in general, was not viewed as strictly as we do in the modern day. Obsessive hygiene is a product of the mid-late 19th century AD and germ theory, and even then, it took quite some time to catch on in the general population. There’s a short satirical poem(? if memory serves) in the time of the Roman Empire making fun of a guy who shows up to the bath-house with an unwashed ass. While this shows that such a thing was unusual and worth mocking, it also shows that it’s the kind of thing that could happen. You may be sharing ass-water with a guy in the public baths, it’s just life.
Do we know for certain they actually wiped with the sponge? Because I can imagine the sponge merely being used to transfer water from the central container to the cupped hand which is then used to clean their anus like in many cultures today. A sponge-on-a-stick having better reach from the seated position than a small jug, and no risk of breaking upon dropping nor theft. I feel like the disgust at the idea of smearing feces between strangers would be just as strong 2000 years ago as it is today.
Fairly certain. There are alternate theories, but the most accepted one is still that the sponge was used for wiping.
… sponge-on-a-stick feels pretty stealable, at least as much as a jug. Wealthier folk would sometimes have a slave carry a personal ass-sponge for them in case they had to use the public latrines while out, which seems, to me, also to point towards the ass-wiping interpretation.
You would be surprised at what different standards the past had. The Romans, indisputably, swished urine to whiten their teeth. And not their own urine either.
Hygiene, in general, was not viewed as strictly as we do in the modern day. Obsessive hygiene is a product of the mid-late 19th century AD and germ theory, and even then, it took quite some time to catch on in the general population. There’s a short satirical poem(? if memory serves) in the time of the Roman Empire making fun of a guy who shows up to the bath-house with an unwashed ass. While this shows that such a thing was unusual and worth mocking, it also shows that it’s the kind of thing that could happen. You may be sharing ass-water with a guy in the public baths, it’s just life.
You are supposed to give it a good rinse.