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New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, 1479-1390 B.C.
Reportedly from Aswan
Brooklyn Museum 37635e Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Photo © Joan Lansberry, May 2008
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(From the info card) "The hairstyle of the nude female figure on the handle of this mirror - thick braids surrounding the face - was popular in the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, allowing art historians to date the work." I noted the mirror's round shape and its similarity to the full moon. Later, I discovered this similarity is not accidental. Lucie Lamy in _Egyptian Mysteries_ explains, "at the moment of opposition (full moon), [the moon] is the mirror of the sun." The moon shaped mirrors sometimes had an eye in them: |
