Erotic mirrors. Eroticism in the mirror. An iconography of love in ancient Greece (fifth to fourth century B.C.).

Abstract

This text consists of an interpretive essay about the meaning(s) of the “mirror”as an objectin Mainland and Aegean Greece (in contrast to Western/Colonial Greece), based on iconography. Itakeinto consideration two distinct repertoires of images: the paintings of Attic vases (late sixth –early fourth centuryB.C.)and the figurative decoration on the mirrors themselves,in relief or engraved (late fifth –early third centuryB.C.). The central focus of the analysis is the iconography registered on mirrors produced in the four main manufacturingcenters of Greece (Athens, Corinth, Chalcis, Ionia). Greeks produced three types of mirrors between Late Archaic and Early Hellenistic times:hand-mirrorswith handle, table mirrorswith stand, and round box mirrors, the latter being the most important to this study.Box mirrors may bear iconography on their folding cover, in relief on the external surface(repoussé)or engraved on the interior surface. In contrast to the iconography of the vases of Magna Graecia, in which the mystic component stands out from the other symbolic aspects, in the case of the iconography of Greek mirrors erotic symbolism and the relation with the goddess Aphrodite predominate.This goddess protects all categories of women (hetaeraeand"citizen-women", married or brides) and all modalities of eroticism.Under the auspices of love and desire, the symbolic power of the mirror can be related to an inclusive eroticism,whichunites, that which society separates.