We, Slavs, are proud of our cleanliness. Since ancient times, we have had a cult of the bath. And Europe won, they say, for many centuries bursting with dirt, even the ladies in Versailles did not wash and attached flea traps to luxurious outfits.
And in our country, almost in every second fairy tale, the hero, entering the hut on chicken legs, demands to heat the bathhouse. Moreover, he is not embarrassed that he is a guest of evil spirits that can cook dinner from him, no, he, like a pampered Geshe, must at all costs "take a bath and drink a cup of coffee."
And Yaga, an old woman with a very bad character, for some reason, without reproach or objection, goes to heat the bathhouse.
Moreover, in some fairy tales Yaga washes Ivan herself. Well, what, a good fellow cannot rub his own back …
Note that this episode is repeated in fairy tales with the same annoying frequency as Zhenya Lukashin's explanations about annual trips to the bathhouse with friends in his favorite Soviet film.
Why?
The fact is that Baba Yaga prepares the hero for a journey to the afterlife. As we know, the hut on chicken legs is a kind of checkpoint in front of the entrance to the otherworldly kingdom. In order for Ivan to cope with the task (the search for a bride or any sacred objects is not so important), he needs to be washed from the smell of the living. That is, all these "give, feed", "heat the bath" are certain rituals that must be passed before the hero enters the world of the dead.
Here is what the researcher T. V. Krayushkina writes:
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