Our knowledge of ancient mirrors is derived (a) from literary notices, and (b) from actual speci- mens that haye been preserved.
(a) Under the first head we note only references to material, manufacture, and the like. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 26) describes what seems to have been an attempt to make glass mirrors at Sidon, but nothing is said as to the success of the experiment. Alexander of Aphrodisias, a writer of the 3rd cent. a.p., refers (Problem. i. 132) to glass mirrors coated with tin (Marquardt, Das Privat- leben der Rémer, Ὁ. 737, n. 2), and an Egyptian mirror made of glass is said to be in the museum at Turin (ib. n. 1). In Pliny’s day, however, only metallic mirrors were in use. The ordinary mate- rial for them was an alloy of copper and tin, and the best of this kind were made at Brundusium. Silver mirrors were the finest, and were first made by one Pasiteles in the time of Pompey. The effects of the various kinds of curvature in mirrors were also known (Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 45, xxxiv. 48). Seneca describes the phenomena of reflexion in a concave mirror (Nat. Quest. 1. iv. 3), and speaks of gold and silver mirrors large enough to give an image of a whole human figure (ἰδ. 1. xvii. 8). ;
(Ὁ) The ancient mirrors still existing may be classified as—
(1) Egyptian. These are made of an alloy of copper, highly polished, and are nearly circular with ornamental handles of wood, stone, or metal. They are described and figured in Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, ii. 350 ff. (2) Etruscan. These have been found in great numbers in the ruins of Preeneste and in other Etrurian burial-places. They are round or pear-shaped, with handles attached, and are remarkable for the elaborate engravings of mythological scenes on their backs. See Ger- hard, BLiruskische Spiegel, i. 78 ff., and the plates in the other 4 vols. (8) Roman. The mirrors of this class are mostly circular. Some have handles and some are without them. The term for the latter variety was orbis (Mart. IX. xvii. 5). Among those found at Pompeii some are square (Overbeck- Mau, Pompeii*, p. 453). (4) Greek. Specimens of these were unknown till 1867. They are of two kinds: circular discs with handles in the form of
MIRROR
statuettes, and box mirrors consisting of two discs which fit into one another and are sometimes hinged together, the outer surface of the polished dise being ornamented in low relief and the inner surface of the other being engraved.
LITERATURE.—De Witte, Les miroirs chez les anciens; Bauer- meister, Denkmiler des Classischen Alterthums, iii. 1690-3; Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Romer, p. 669 ff. ; Collignon, Manuel d'Archéologie Grecque, 346ff.; Mylonas, Ἑλληνικὰ xatorrpe; Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Antigutties, by Nettleship and Sandys, s.v. ‘Mirror’; Guhl and Kéner, Life of the Greeks and Romans, 184, 499.
The following are the Scripture allusions to mirrors. In Ex 385 the laver of the tabernacle is said to have been made of ‘the mirrors’ (AV ‘looking glasses,’ AVm ‘brasen glasses’) of the serving women.* This implies that they were made of metal (see Brass). The Heb. is 7x72 (LXX κάτοπτρον), a word which is elsewhere ren- dered ‘vision.’ In Job 37! the sky is compared for strength to a molten ‘ mirror’ ('s7, LXX ὅρασις ἐπιχύσεως, AV ‘looking glass’). The whole verse embodies the ancient conception of the sky as a hard metal-like solid. The verb at the beginning (‘spread out’ AV and RY) is ypq ‘to beat, beat out,’ from which comes the term y’p9 (‘ firmament’) ariet to the sky, (see Cosmocony). In Is 3% ‘hand mirrors’ (AV ‘glasses’) are named among the articles of female luxury denounced by the prophet. The Heb. is }\*>3, and the general idea of the word appears to be that of a smooth flat surface. It occurs again in Is 81, where it is rendered ‘tablet’ in RV and ‘roll’in AV. In late Heb. it came to mean the blank margin of a book. In the former passage, however, LXX understands by Ὁ garments of some thin transparent material, and renders by διαφανῆ Λακωνικά.
In Apocr. and NT ἔσοπτρον takes the place of the usual classical word for mirror, κάτοπτρον. In Wis 7* wisdom is called the unspotted ‘mirror’ of the working of God. In Sir 12” the persistent malice of an enemy is compared to the rust on a ‘ mirror’ (AV ‘looking glass’), which it is dillicult to wipe away completely—a metallic mirror being clearly referred to. In 1 Co 13" the spiritual knowledge of the present life is likened to the dim perception of images in a ‘ mirror’ (AV ‘ glass’). a Ja 1h the Christian law of liberty is described figuratively as a ‘mirror’ (AV ‘glass’). The careless hearer of the law, who does not obey it, is compared to one who looks at himself in the mirror and forgets the reflected image as soon as he has turned away from it, while the obedient disciple is likened to one who keeps gazing steadfastly into the mirror, and who thus has the image of what he ought to be always before the eye of his soul.
The verb κατοπτρίζεσθαι occurs once (2 Co 38), Here AV has ‘ beholding as in a glass’ the glory of the Lord, RV ‘reflecting as a mirror,’ an Wein ‘beholding asin a mirror.’ The translation of the word is closely connected with the interpretation of the context, and the two renderings in RV mark the wide divergence which exists among scholars and commentators with regard to the passage. For the new translation ἜΠΕΣΕ, ’ there eae hs