Mirror

The Mirror in Ancient Egypt

Mirrors in ancient Egypt were made of a rounded sheet of highly polished copper or bronze, with a decorated handle of metal, wood, or ivory. Favorite motifs were images of the goddess Hathor, falcons, cats, flowers, and nude women. Reliefs on the walls of Ptolemaic temples show that some goddesses, especially Hathor and Mut, were presented with two mirrors, one of gold and one of silver, signifying the sun and moon as offerings in the service of their cults. A sacred “mirror dance,” using mirrors to catch the sunlight, is known. Mirrors were also buried with the dead, to help light their way.

Because the disk of the mirror was evocative of the sun - both in its brightness and its shape - Egyptian mirrors often exhibited decorations which enhanced this symbolic association. The handle of a mirror found in Tutankhamen's tomb was decorated with the image of a scarab beetle, which was believed to push the sun across the sky.

Mirrors have also been found with the disk flanked by two falcons (symbols of the sun-god Ra), or decorated with lotus flowers, leaves, and stems. The lotus was strongly associated with the sun, as the flower retreats beneath the water at night and rises again each day at dawn. The god Ra was also thought to have risen from the primordial waters inside of a lotus.

One handle of a mirror was made out of fossilized bone.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

A Wish to be a Mirror

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