In the museum catalogue
An image is not available here yet.
View at the museum ↗Art Institute of Chicago
Hand Mirror
Ancient Etruscan470-450 BCE
- Attribution
- Etruscan; probably Vulci
- Medium
- Bronze
- Physical dimensions
- 16.8 × 15.1 × 0.7 cm (6 5/8 × 6 × 5/16 in.) (with tang)
- Credit line
- Katherine K. Adler Memorial Fund
CATALOGUE RECORD
Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.
Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Found in women’s graves, bronze mirrors were luxurious personal possessions used in life and then buried with the dead for use in the afterlife. One side was highly polished; the other side was usually engraved with a mythic scene, such as this one, which shows the goddess Eos carrying the body of her son, Memnon, who was killed by the hero Achilles. The episode was taken from Homer’s The Iliad, the epic poem that narrates the Greek siege and eventual defeat of the city of Troy.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0