'^X
5 n
Ancient Mirrors of Bronze. (From the British Museum : 1 to 4, Egyptian ; 5, Assyrian.)
lections of Egyptian antiquities. These are of mixed metals, chiefiy copper, most carefully wrought and highly polished; and so admirably did the skiU of the Egyptians succeed in the composition of metals that this substitute for our modern looking-glass was suscep- tible of a lustre, which has even been partially revived at the present da\' in some of those discovered at Thebes, though buried in the earth for so many centuries. The mirror itself was nearly rOund, and was inserted in a handle of wood, stone, or metal, the form of which va- ried according to the taste of the owner (see Wilkinson's Ancient Er/yptians, iii, 384-386). In the N. T. mirrors are mentioned (to-OTrrpa, James i, 23; comp. 1 Cor. xiii, 12; see Harenberg, in Uasni et Iken. not: tkesaur. ii, 829 sq.). They are alluded to in the Rabbinical writ- ings (i<"i"i^pSOX, i. e. specularia, Targ. Jon. in Exod. xix, 17; Deut. xxxiii, 19; Mishna, Chelim, xvii, 15; Edujoth, ii, 7; see Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. p. 379). See generally, Th. Carpzov, De speculis Hehrmor. (Rostock, 1752) ; Jahn, I, ii, 155 sq. ; Hartmann, Hebr. ii, 240 sq. ; iii, 245 sq. It appears likewise from other positive statements that mirrors anciently were of metal, name- ly, of copper (xaX/cao)', Xenoph. Symp. vii, 4) or tin, also of an alloy of both these metals, answering to brass, and sometimes even of silver (Pliny, xxxiii, 45 ; xxxiv, 48 ; comp. Rosell. Monum. II, ii, 528 sq. ; Becker, Callus, III, iii). Occasionally they were of great size (Senec. Nat. Quasi, i, 16, 17, p. 185, Bip. ; Quintil. Inst, ii, 3, 68). Finally, mirrors of polished stone are mentioned (Pliny, xxxvi, 45; comp. Sueton. Domit. xiv). "Pliny men- tions that anciently the best were made at Brundusium. Praxiteles, in the time of Pompey the Great, is said to have been the first who made them of silver, though these were afterwards so common as, in the time of Plinj'', to be used by the ladies' maids. Silver mirrors are alluded to in Plautus (Mostell. i, 4, ver. 101) and Phllostratus (^Icon. i, 6) ; and one of steel is said to have been found. They were even made of gold (Eur. Hec. 925 ; Senec. Nat. Qucvst. i, 17). According to Beckmann (Hist, of Inv. ii. 64, F/u'.iu's transl.). a mirror which was discovered near Napl s was tested, and found to be made of a mixture of copper and regulus of antimony, with a little lead. Beckmann's editor (Mr. Francis) gives in a note the result of an analysis of an Etruscan mirror, which he examined and found to consist of 67.12 cop- per, 24.93 tin, and 8.13 lead, or nearly eight parts of copper to three of tin and one of lead; but neither in this, nor in one analyzed by Klaproth, was there any trace of antimony, which IJeckmann asserts was un- known to the ancients. Modern experiments have shown that the mixture of copper and tin produces the best metal for specula {Phil. Trans. Ixvii, 290). Beck- mann is of the opinion that it was not till the loth cen- tury that glass, covered at the back with tin or lead, was used for this purpose, the doubtful allusion in Pliny (xxxvi, 66) to the mirrors made in the glass-houses of Sidon having reference to experiments which were un- successfid. Other allusions to bronze mirrors will be found in a fragment of ^Eschj'lus preserved in Stobajus (Serm. xviii, p. 164, ed. Gesner, 1608) and in Callima- chus {Hym. in Lav. Pall. 21). Convex mirrors of pol- ished steel are mentioned as common in the East in a manuscript note of Chardin's upon Ecclus. xii, 11, quoted by Harraer (Observ. vol. iv, c. 11, obs. 55). The mefal of which the mirrors were composed being liable to rust and tarnish, required to be constantly kept bright (Wisd. vii, 26; Ecclus. xii, 11). This was done by means of pounded pumice-stone, rubbed on with a sponge, which was generally suspended from the mirror. The Persians used emery-powder for the same purpose, according to Chardin (quoted by Hartmann, Die Hebr. urn Puiztiscke, ii, 245). The obscure image produced by a tarnished or imperfect mirror appears to be alluded to in 1 Cor. xiii, 12. On the other hand, a polished mirror is among the Arabs the emblem of a pure reputation. 'More spotless than the mirror of a foreign woman' is with
MIRTH
332
MISERERE
them a proverbial expression, which IMeidani explains of a woman who has married out of her country, and polishes her mirror incessantly, that no part of her face may escape her observation (De Sacy, Chrcst. Arab, iii, 230). IMirrors are mentioned by Clin,-sostom amonj^ the extravagances of fasliion for which he rebuked the ladies of liis time, and Seneca long before was loud in his denunciation of similar follies {Nat. Qiiwst. i, 17). They were used by the Koman women in the worship of Jinio (Senec. L'p. 95; Apuleius, Metam. xi, c. 9, p. 770). In the Egyptian temples, says Cyril of Alexan- dria (^JJe ador. in Sjiir. ix ; Opera, i, 314, ed. Paris, 1638), it was the custom for tlie women to worship in linen garments, holding a mirror in their left hands and a sistrum in their right ; and the Israelites, having fallen into the idolatries of the country, had brought with them the mirrors which they used in their worship" (Smith). This is a practice to which one of the above Scrijiture passages (Exod. xxxviii, 8) appears to allude (see (Jesenius, Comment, on Isa. i, 215; on the contrary, B. F. f^)uistorp, Die speculis labri cenei, Gryph. 1773).