Greek open-air shower baths for men. Gouache painting by S.W. Kelly, 1937, after the Antimenes Painter.

"Fountain scene. In the centre a fountain building seen from the front, with a man and a boy taking a shower under two panther head spouts; the water is not indicated. On either side of the building there is a tree, under each of which two naked boys. They have hung their clothes on the branches of the trees. On the left, one of the boys takes down an aryballos that hangs on a branch. On the right one boy is pouring oil in his hand from an aryballos to anoint himself, another aryballos still hangs on a branch. The fountain-house has three Doric columns on the front, supporting the architrave and the pediment, which is decorated with a big white shield flanked by two twisting serpents. The raking cornices end in volutes above which two rearing horses as akroteria (cf. the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, Fouilles de Delphes IV, 4, Pl. 87-91). The floor of the fountain-house must have a slightly raised rim round it, because the toes and soles of the feet of the two men inside are hidden, as Beazley points out (ABS. p. 26, note 4). By this rim the water was kept in, and Dunkley suggests that this was done with fountain-houses which were used as baths (BSA. 36, 1935/6, p. 190), but in that case we might expect a deeper trough. It seems to me more probable that the rim of the floor was raised in order to keep the surroundings of the fountain-house dry: it must be very unpleasant to have to wade through the mud every time you want to get a jug of water. The fountain-houses were not used exclusively for water-support, or for bathing or for washing anything, but they served all purposes at the same time, as can be seen in several vase-paintings (e.g. London Brit. Mus. B 333 (CVA. B.M. 6, 3He pl. 90, 1); Madrid 10924 (CVA. Madrid 1, 3He pl. 12); Elite céramographique IV, pl. 17; Materiali di Antichità varia-11. Scavi di Vulci. Materiale concesso alla Soc. Hercle, Roma 1964, tomb 137, no. 412). That this multiple function of the fountains was quite usual, appears from inscriptions which explicitly forbid the use of a certain fountain as bath or as washing-place (e.g. Délos V, 113 and I.G. XII 5, 569). Above the head and behind the back of the bathing boy the inscription: ΚΑΛΟΣ ΑΝΤΙΜΕΝΕΣ ["Antimenes is beautiful"]— the kalos inscription from which the painter derives his name. Behind the second boy from the left the inscription: ΦΙΛΟΝΣΕ ["you darling"]."--Maria Frederika Jongkees-Vos, loc. cit.