TOWELS. the Athenians used the expression [Greek: kata cheiros] before eating, but the word [Greek: nipsasthai] after eating.) Sophocles, in his Œnomaus, says—
Shaved in the Scythian manner, while his hair
Served for a towel, and to wipe his hands in.
And Herodotus, in the second book of his History, speaks in a similar manner. But Xenophon, in the first book of his Cyropædia, writes—"But when you have touched any one of these things, you immediately wipe your hands in a towel, as if you were greatly annoyed at their having been polluted in such a manner." And Polemo, in the sixth book of his books addressed to Antigonus and Adæus, speaks of the difference between the two expressions [Greek: kata cheiros] and [Greek: nipsasthai]. And Demonicus, in his Achelonius, uses the expression [Greek: kata cheiros], of water used before a meal, in these lines:—
But each made haste, as being about to dine
With one who'd always a good appetite,
And who had also but Bœotian manners.
And so they all neglected washing their hands ([Greek: kata cheiros]),
Because they could do that when they had dined.
And Cratinus also mentions towels, which he calls [Greek: ômolinon], in his Archilochi,—
With her hair cover'd with a linen towel,
Token of slovenly neglect.
And Sappho, in the fifth book of her Melodies addressed to Venus, when she says—
And purple towels o'er your knees I'll throw,
And do not you despise my precious gifts
speaks of these towels as a covering for the head; as Hecatæus shows, or whoever else it was who wrote those Descriptions of the World in the book entitled Asia,—"And the women wear towels ([Greek: cheiromaktra]) on their heads." And Herodotus, in his second book, says, "And after this they said that this king descended down alive into the lower regions, which the Greeks call [Greek: Haidês], and that there he played at dice with Ceres, and that sometimes he won and sometimes he lost; and that after that he returned to earth with a gold-embroidered towel, which he had received as a present from her."
80. And Hellanicus, in his Histories, says that the name of the boy who, when he had given Hercules water to wash his hands, and poured it over his hands from the basin, was
