Mirrors in Literature, Folk Law, & History
Literature and folklore spoke of man's fascination with reflections as far back as before the written word. Across the lands, different peoples have spoken at length about mirrors in their stories and incorporated myths about them into their cultures.
Prior to the written word, looking glasses were pivotal themes in Greek and Roman mythology. Narcissus gazed into the water lovingly at his own reflection, unaware that he was looking at himself. He was unable to tear himself away from the image of his face and remained by the water until he died. In another story, Perseus killed Medusa with the help of a highly polished shield to protect him. Her image was so horrific as to turn men to stone, but he was able to look at her reflection safely and survive long enough to kill her.
Other cultures spoke of using mirrors in their stories as well. In Japanese mythology, the sun Goddess Amaterasu was angered by her brother and retreated to a cave, covering the world in darkness. The god of merriment lured her out by placing a large bronze mirror in a tree. Like Narcissus, Amaterasu was so dazzled by her own reflection that she left her cave.
In more modern times, the collected fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm contain a story about an evil queen possessing a magical mirror. This enchanted looking glass had the power to reveal the most beautiful being in the world. In other legends, mirrors are portals used for transportation to the sun or moon.
The earliest mirrors were probably darkened pools of water used to cast reflections. Later, dark polished stones such as obsidian were used, sometimes in conjunction with water, to make a more reflective surface. Even today, some Pagans still use dark polished stone bowls full of water for spiritual and physical reflection.
The Romans used burnished or polished disks of metal as mirrors. These were usually made from bronze, tin or silver. After the discovery of glassblowing in the 14th century, mirrors were made from glass bulbs, cooled and then cut into pieces forming convex mirrors. During the 16th century, a method of backing a flat sheet of glass with a sheet of reflective metal came into use.
In 1835, the German chemist Justus von Liebig came up a process to coat glass with metallic silver, thus leading the world into modern mirror making techniques. Today mirrors are made by adding a thin layer of molten metal, usually aluminum or silver to the back of a plate of glass in a vacuum.
Mirrors have become commonplace in the lives of people all over the world today. We use them for decoration and for vanity. We use them with infants to help bolster development. They are used in telescopes and several other precision instruments in schools, hospitals, and laboratories. Mirrors are used in our cars the same way that Perseus used them against Medusa, by taking images from behind or to the side of us and making them safe to look at while facing forward.
Despite mirrors’ common use in our lives, they have never ceased to fascinate us. They are still used in movies, books and other forms of entertainment to thrill us, teach us a lesson, or even frighten us by reflecting things that we cannot see with our own eyes, like ghosts, lurking intruders, or even alternate versions of ourselves.
