strigil

Three years later, when archaeologists raised the statue, it was revealed to be a Classical Greek Apoxyomenos, an athlete--most likely an Olympic wrestler--in the process of removing oil and sand from his nude body with a small metal scraper called a strigil.

Many of the objects came from Pompeii and Herculaneum and run the gamut from articles recognizable today, such as a razor, to discontinued objects, now unrecognizable, such as the strigil, used to scrape oil, sweat, and dirt from the body after bathing or exercising.

Elytrotergal stridulatory organs present, with elytral strigil (file-like structures) on the apical portion of the ventral sides of the elytra (Figs.

Note the insistence on the concept of weight, as observed in "pondus," "grauatum," and "pondere." (35) A further interesting case is offered by Riddle 89 (strigilis aenea), which describes a bronze strigil used for removing dirt and sweat from the skin in a bathhouse: "Robida, curua, capax, alienis humida guttis ..." [Ruddy, curved, capacious, bedewed with strange drops (i.e., somebody else's drops of sweat)] (1).

Early Greeks and Romans used a metal tool called a strigil (STRI-jehl) to scrape dirt, oil, and sweat from their bodies.

while the other, to the right, holds a strigil and an oil-flask to

SCRATCH MY BACK: A Roman bronze strigil that sold for pounds 336 in Bonhams

The Greeks cleaned themselves, for example after wrestling naked, not with soap but with a curved metal scraper called a strigil. Soap was made from animal fats and ashes and was known for thousands of years BC, but later olive oil was used rather than, or in addition to animal fats, producing a milder material.

Penalty flags might fly for some misspellings: "Illiad" for Iliad and "stirgil" for strigil, for example, but altogether the research is solid, with helpful bibliographies after each section.

170 (Vienna 814 = AR[V.sup.2] 1262.68), the athlete is clothed, but holds a strigil, as if to emphasize that he has just finished bathing.

Instead, they rubbed on perfumed olive oil and then scraped off the dirt and oil with a blade called a strigil. Also, Romans liked their food so hot and spicy they even flavored their sweet dishes with pepper.

Cleopatra, whose beauty habits have been well publicized, rubbed herself with oil and then used a blade called a strigil to scrape her skin clean.