Melillo L
Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italia.
Med Secoli. 1995;7(3):461-83.
The importance of water was well known in Prehistory and in ancient World. There are, in Homeric poems, several descriptions of cold and warm baths, a witness of their utilization in ancient Greek civilization. But the sources of water were always linked with the divinities of the Earth, and the temples dedicated to Asklepios had also thermal baths. The Romans, heirs of Etruscan culture, made the baths a social and public matter, and in Rome the Thermate reached a high degree of perfection.
水的重要性在史前时期和古代世界就已广为人知。在荷马史诗中，有几处对冷热水浴的描述，这证明了它们在古希腊文明中的使用。但水源总是与大地之神联系在一起，供奉阿斯克勒庇俄斯的神庙也有温泉浴场。继承伊特鲁里亚文化的罗马人将浴场变成了一种社会和公共事务，在罗马，浴场达到了高度的完善。
