Ritual Bath

"The fourth handmaid brought water and lit a great fire under a massive cauldron. The water warmed, and when it boiled in the bright bronze vessel, Circe made me sit in a bath and bathed me with water from the cauldron, tampering hot and cold to my mind and pouring it over my head and shoulders until she had banished from my limbs the weariness that had sapped my spirit. And having washed me and richly appointed me with oil, she dressed me in a fine cloak and tunic, led me forward and gave me a tall silver-studded chair to sit on--handsome and cunningly made--with a stool beneath it for the feet. She bade me eat, but my heart was not on eating."

— Odyssey 10

LIfecycle bathing begins with a bath a birth. Brides are ritually bathed before marriage. And finally, the dead are ritually bathed before a funeral, as Patrokles and Hektor are before their respective funerals in The Iliad.
Guests are bathed on arrival to recognize them as social equals entitled to further hospitality. Kirke bathes Odysseus upon his acceptance as a guest on her island. Kalypso bathes Odysseus upon his departure from her island as he leaves her hospitality to resume his journey. This type of bathing would have been accompanied by offerings to Zeus as the daimon of hospitality.
After returning from a battle, warriors are bathed in a purification ritual before reintegrating into the household, as Odysseus was bathed by his nurse after killing the maids and suitors. The ritual was subverted when Klytemnestra and Aigistheus murdered Agamemnon during his bath.
A hot soak was used in medical treatment of muscle and joint pain, by opening pores and allowing toxins to be sweated out, and for general stress relief and restoration. This type of bathing was accompanied by ritual offerings to Asklepius, the daimon of medicine, and Hygenia, the daimon of health. Machaon and Podalirius, notable practitioners of healing arts in the Iliad, engaged in this process for wounded warriors. Hot sulfur springs, where they exist, may become sites of healing worthy of pilgrimage. A cold soak, as a stimulus for the nerves and circulatory system, was also used.
Pools of cold water were available for athletes after exercise or competition in a process that may also have been accompanied by rituals.

History

Not to be confused with communal baths, hygienic baths, or hot baths for non-noble folks, all of which would not be available in Hellas until centuries later. Most people in the Fourth Age had to settle for cold bathing in whatever bodies of water they can find, viewing a hot bath in a tub as a rare luxury for their social betters, which they themselves could only dream about.

Execution

It was expected, before soaking in a hot tub, to clean off in cold or unheated water, or in a river or in the sea. The hot bath, then, was seen as distinct from a mere hygienic process. A soap of lye, wood ash, or oil could be used if available, and an especially dirty or sweaty person might require a metal tool called a Stleggis to scrape off the grime. The stleggis was used mainly, but not exclusively, by men, either on themselves or by a slave.
Ritually bathing another person involved pouring hot water over their head and shoulders as they sat in a tub, with all water added after the person has entered the empty tub. This made bathing into a social function, requiring another person to complete. For modesty and propriety, women wore a towel around their loins when being bathed in the presence of an unrelated man.
After the bath, the bather might also be anointed with scented oils.

Components and tools

A clay bathtub found in Knossos is an example of private luxury baths afforded royalty and nobles. The fancier the tub, the higher the status represented. In The Iliad, Odysseus and Diomedes enjoy a hot bath in polished tubs after their night raid in Book X, while Meneleas had an extravagant silver tub in The Odyssey.
Water for the bath would be heated in a cauldron mounted on a tripod and heated by a fire.

Participants

Guests would be bathed by their hosts. Brides would be bathed by their bridal parties.