balaneion

Noun

balaneion (plural balaneia)

1. An ancient Greek bathhouse.
   • But these balaneia had nothing to do with the gymnasia, and are indeed sharply contrasted with them. To frequent them was considered, at all events among old-fashioned folk, to be a sign of effeminacy. Aristophanes bitterly complains that the effect of the new-fashioned education was to empty the...1910, E[dward] Norman Gardiner, “The Gymnasium and the Palaestra”, in Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, London: Macmillan and Co., […], pages 479–480
   • The reason that there were originally no publicly owned balaneia in Greece was presumably, again, that they were not really approved of, and that they stole some of the popularity from the gymnasium. But in the Hellenistic period, after the balaneion institution had been accepted as a service...1990, Inge Nielsen, translated by Peter Crabb, “[The development of baths in Italy] Balaneion”, in Thermae et Balnea: The Architecture and Cultural History of Roman Public Baths, volume I (Text)...